Whether he ends up as a true everyday player this season or a platoon left fielder who starts the majority of games, Max Kepler is looking like someone who can help the Phillies. He already has during a power-packed week.
Kepler hammered the first pitch he saw Saturday night from Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon Pfaadt, hitting it 392 feet for a missile of a two-run homer to right field. It was 107 mph off the bat but might as well have been 150, the second of five straight loud hits in a three-run second inning for the Phillies, who scored three more in the third on a J.T. Realmuto homer.
The 7-2 win was one of the Phillies’ easiest of the season. They had to eke out all but one of their nine wins from April 3-19, taxing their most important relievers, but the Phils have won three games by a comfortable margin since last Saturday. They’ve needed nights like these.
Kepler has been an important part of them, homering in all three lopsided wins. He is hitting .280 with an OPS just under .900 against right-handed pitching and has 10 extra-base hits in 94 plate appearances. His rate of hard contact is the highest of his career.
“He’s been awesome,” Realmuto said. “He has good at-bats all the time, hits the ball hard. He’s been doing damage for us. Putting us up 2-0 tonight with the way Noles was throwing the ball, that was great.”
The Phillies’ offense scored more runs for Aaron Nola than they had all season — seven on Saturday compared to six in his previous six starts. And Nola made all the support stand up with six scoreless innings. He sure appears to be settling in. After throwing three of his four fastest pitches of the season last Sunday at Wrigley Field, Nola exceeded 94 mph for the first time this year on Saturday with heaters of 94.4 and 94.3.
This has always been the case for Nola, whose fastball after May 1 has averaged 92.3 compared to 91.4 in March and April. He also has historically performed much better in warmer weather and these were by far his best conditions since spring training. It rained during the second and third innings but the temperature was in the high-70s, not the mid-40s or 50s with wind chill he dealt with in St. Louis, New York and twice at home.
What Nola did not have early on Saturday was his best control. His ball-strike ratio was nearly even through the game’s first seven batters, then he found a groove with a 4-6-3 double play to end the top of the second. He retired nine of 10 batters from the second through fifth innings and held the Diamondbacks hitless in four at-bats with a runner in scoring position.
Of the 18 outs Nola recorded, 17 were via strikeout or groundout. It looked like he might be done after five innings because his pitch count was at 95 but Rob Thomson extended him one more. The manager’s reasons were likely three-fold: Nola was pitching well, he will have an extra day between starts and the Phillies were down a reliever after placing Jose Ruiz on the IL pregame with a neck spasm.
Nola is 1-5 with a 4.61 ERA and trending in the right direction. So is Trea Turner, who has a .475 on-base percentage in his last 14 games and so are the Phillies, who at 19-14 have matched a season-high at five games over .500.
They’ve won three straight series since being swept at Citi Field and look for a sweep of their own Sunday afternoon behind a debuting Ranger Suarez.
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