{"id":1310437,"date":"2019-05-18T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T02:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/harpers-bat-nolas-arm-lead-phillies-past-rockies-2-1\/"},"modified":"2019-05-18T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T02:52:00","slug":"harpers-bat-nolas-arm-lead-phillies-past-rockies-2-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/harpers-bat-nolas-arm-lead-phillies-past-rockies-2-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Harper\u2019s bat, Nola\u2019s arm lead Phillies past Rockies 2-1"},"content":{"rendered":"
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Saturday, May 18, 2019, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Laurence Kesterson)<\/strong>
AP | FR170723 AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Bryce Harper delivered a powerful swing and Aaron Nola provided the punchouts.<\/p>\n

Harper homered over the batter\u2019s eye in center field, Nola tied his career high with 12 strikeouts while pitching into the seventh inning and the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Colorado Rockies 2-1 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Harper also doubled for the NL East-leading Phillies. But it was his majestic drive in the first inning that had everyone talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like it went over the stadium,\u201d Nola said.<\/p>\n

Harper crushed the first pitch he saw onto Ashburn Alley, a fan walkway where only a few home runs have reached since Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004. The drive, his eighth of the season, was estimated at 466 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just stop and watch the distance of the ball,\u201d manager Gabe Kapler said. \u201cThat\u2019s rare territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper downplayed the length, happy enough to have cleared the fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool, of course, but like (his former Washington Nationals manager) Matt Williams said, \u2018It\u2019s not how far, it\u2019s how many,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Harper\u2019s impressive blast helped Nola to an early cushion, and he took it from there.<\/p>\n

Nola (4-0) allowed one run on eight hits while walking one. The right-hander looked more like the pitcher who finished third in the NL Cy Young voting last season and not the one who has struggled for much of 2019 \u2014 he has a 4.47 ERA this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I remember when I was with the Nats (last season),\u201d Harper said of Nola\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

While reaching double-digit strikeouts for the 10th time but first this season, Nola got past the fourth inning for seventh time in 10 starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt pretty in control today, definitely smoother than previous starts,\u201d Nola said. \u201cMy command felt good and I was driving my fastball through the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Wolters had an RBI triple for Colorado, which has lost three straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit of lack of offense today,\u201d Rockies manager Bud Black said. \u201cWe had some chances, but didn\u2019t get the big hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black also credited Nola.<\/p>\n

\u201cBest breaking ball he\u2019s had all year, I\u2019m going to bet on that,\u201d Black said. \u201cAnd his fastball had velocity, more than we\u2019ve seen. It was evident of what we saw last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nola breezed through six innings and Kapler elected to bring him out for the seventh despite 99 pitches. Wolters led off with a triple off the wall in right and pinch-hitter Ryan McMahon doubled off the wall in right-center to pull the Rockies within 2-1 and end Nola\u2019s day.<\/p>\n

Adam Morgan got the first out on a grounder that moved McMahon to third before Seranthony Dominguez came on and wriggled out of the inning.<\/p>\n

McMahon ran on contact with the Phillies\u2019 infield in on Trevor Story\u2019s groundball to third and was thrown out at home. A single by David Dahl and walk to Nolan Arenado loaded the bases for Daniel Murphy, who grounded out weakly to short.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia went in front 2-0 in the third with the help of the Rockies. Jean Segura walked, went to third on Rhys Hoskins\u2019 single that was booted in left by Raimel Tapia and scored on a wild pitch by Antonio Senzatela (3-3).<\/p>\n

Senzatela gave up five hits and four walks in five innings.<\/p>\n

FIRST FOR RODGERS<\/p>\n

Brendan Rodgers, Colorado\u2019s top prospect playing in his second game, got his first hit with an infield single in the second. Rodgers went 1 for 4 with three strikeouts.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

The teams wrap up their three-game series on Sunday with Philadelphia RHP Jerad Eickhoff (2-2, 2.65) facing LHP Kyle Freeland (2-5, 5.68).<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Saturday, May 18, 2019, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo\/Laurence Kesterson)AP | FR170723 AP PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Bryce Harper delivered a powerful swing and Aaron Nola provided the punchouts. Harper homered over the batter\u2019s eye in center field, Nola […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 15:40:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}