Aaron Nola is still an ace. Let’s just get that out of the way.
However, he has been pretty mediocre lately, and for a team that has playoff aspirations, that’s a problem. Since he threw a complete game shutout on April 18, Nola has made nine starts, throwing 50 2⁄3 innings in those starts. He has a 4.97 ERA during that stretch, allowing nine home runs, a .270/.324/.464 line, but still maintaining a 57:14 K:BB ratio. He’s been extremely inconsistent and not at all what the team envisioned when they looked at their rotation on paper to begin the season and nodded with a grin.