Aaron Nola battled, from bad to good and back.
But the bad to even begin with was "unacceptable," the righthander said Wednesday night.
The Phillies lost to the Giants, 11-4. Nola couldn't locate the zone to start, got tagged for three straight hits, walked Heliot Ramos to load the bases, then walked Wilmer Flores to bring across a run. Patrick Bailey drove in two more on a grounder that hopped off the glove of Trea Turner at short following a mound visit, and just like that, it was 4-0 San Francisco. The Phillies were operating from behind again.
It was Nola's second straight start where he walked in a run. He had only done that one other time in his decade-long career prior, and now he's suddenly up to three.
He's also 0-4 to start the season. He's had bad opening months before, but this is new. "Definitely the worst start I've ever had, by far," Nola said in the clubhouse after.
And for a Phillies club whose starting pitching was arguably its greatest strength heading into 2025, that's a problem.
Nola did settle in after needing 35 pitches to get through the first. He kept the Giants in check through the fifth with only one more run allowed, which allowed the Phillies' bats to make a push to climb back in it, and got his pitch count under control to 81 heading into the sixth.
But then manager Rob Thomson sent Nola back out there, and he slipped back into trouble.
He loaded the bases again with a single and two more walks, then had the ball handed off to reliever José Ruiz after 5.1 innings.
Ruiz walked home the next batter, and the wheels fell off for the Phillies from there.
For the night, Nola finished with a line of nine hits and seven runs allowed (six earned), with four walks and eight strikeouts. His ERA ballooned up to 6.65, and his WHIP after Wednesday night averaged out to an uneasy 1.662.
Between Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park and last week in St. Louis, Nola has walked four batters in consecutive appearances. It's a problem.
"I just gotta get ahead better," Nola said. "Too many free passes, and usually those runs that've been scored, I'm just kinda making it harder on myself in those situations…
"Eight walks in two games overall, it's not good, so I'll clean it up."
The Phillies will need him to in the long run.
At this point, it's been clear what kind of pitcher Nola is.
When he's on, the strikeouts pile up in bunches, and he looks near unhittable.
When he's off, the pitch count skyrockets, the strike zone shrinks, and the day becomes an immense struggle.
But his good days bring a lot of value to the top of the rotation, and have typically made the bad ones bearable, albeit frustrating when they do appear.
Nola, however, just hasn't tapped into his best yet, and until he does, it's a problem, or at the very least a concern.
There is leeway for him to figure it out, though. It is still only April, and the 31-year-old insisted postgame that his body feels good and that his confidence is in a good spot.
The results just aren't adding up right now, but reputation alone indicates that Nola will turn things around, Thomson said postgame.
"This guy's a grinder," the Phillies manager said. "He throws 35 pitches in the first inning and gets into the sixth. He had 81 after five, so he figures it out, no matter what kind of stuff he's got. He's gonna grind, he's gonna battle."
But Wednesday night took him from bad to good and all the way back, which was too much for the Phillies to overcome. It's a problem.
"All I can do is keep working," Nola said. "Keep trying to have good weeks and prepare as best as I can for the next game I pitch, take all my work into that game, and just compete."
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