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Letdown for Nola in matchup with Harvey

NEW YORK - After one inning Wednesday night at CitiField, the MLB.com website promoted the game between the Phillies and New York Mets as a confrontation between a couple of aces. They were wrong on both counts and that is a major problem facing the Phillies not only now but also in the future.

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola (27) reacts on the
mound after giving up a two-run home run to New York Mets'  Michael
Conforto in the third inning of a baseball game on Wednesday, Sept. 2,
2015, in New York.
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola (27) reacts on the mound after giving up a two-run home run to New York Mets' Michael Conforto in the third inning of a baseball game on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, in New York.Read more(Kathy Kmonicek/AP)

NEW YORK - After one inning Wednesday night at CitiField, the MLB.com website promoted the game between the Phillies and New York Mets as a confrontation between a couple of aces. They were wrong on both counts and that is a major problem facing the Phillies not only now but also in the future.

Yes, Aaron Nola is the titular staff ace of the Phillies, but only because he is followed by three fellow rookies and a veteran with an earned run average pushing five per game. Put Nola in the Mets' organization and he might still be pitching at the triple-A level, which in no way is meant as a knock at his ability or what he could become.

No, Matt Harvey is not the ace of the Mets' staff, but he would be on a lot of other teams, which is one of the reasons New York's long National League nightmare has ended this season. For the first time in nine years it appears as if the Mets will be a postseason participant.

It was quite a first inning for Harvey and Nola, a couple of guys who were drafted seventh overall four years apart and figure to go against each other plenty of more times during their careers.

Harvey, a rare combination of power and pinpoint control, struck out the Phillies in order with an arsenal that includes a change-up that is clocked at 89 m.p.h. The 26-year-old righthander finished the inning with a 98-m.p.h. fastball that left Odubel Herrera helplessly flailing at air.

Nola, a 22-year-old righthander who relies on movement and control, countered in the bottom of the first with a perfect inning of his own, starting it with a strikeout of Curtis Granderson.

It appeared as if something special was brewing. It was not.

By the end of three innings the first-place Mets held a 6-0 lead on their way to a 9-4 victory. Nola had surrendered eight hits by that point, including a surreal inside-the-park home run that left Phillies rightfielder Domonic Brown flat on his back in the right-field stands as Ruben Tejeda rounded the bases. The shortest of Nola's nine big-league outings was over after four innings and his ERA had soared from 3.26 to 4.02.

By Harvey's standards, it was a pedestrian outing. For the first time in 13 starts he surrendered more than three runs, allowing four on nine hits in 61/3 innings. It was good enough to get him his 12th win.

It was not a night to remember for Nola or the Phillies, but what's one more game that is best forgotten in a season filled with them? What's far more disconcerting is figuring out how the Phillies can get close to where the Mets are already at in the pitching department.

Interim manager Pete Mackanin was presented with that question before the game and said that Nola and fellow rookies Jerad Eickhoff and Alec Asher "have a very good chance to be in the rotation next year just based on what I've seen so far."

That's not good news.

The three rookies have combined for a total of 13 starts and at this point, Nola is the only one of the three that you can truly feel excited about based on a decent sample size of starts. But even Nola does not give the Phillies what the Mets have in abundance.

Jacob deGrom, the 2014 National League rookie of the year, has stood as the true ace of the Mets' staff this season and is the pitcher most likely to open the postseason for them. Like Harvey, he throws hard. Like Harvey, he throws strikes. The same can be said of Noah Syndergaard, who at 22 is the youngest of the Mets' stable of studs.

In any given year, Harvey, deGrom or Syndergaard could emerge as the ace of the Mets' staff. Add Steven Matz, 24, and Zack Wheeler, 25, to the mix and the Mets have two other hard-throwing starters that every other team in baseball would love to have. Both of those guys have been derailed by injuries this season. Matz is scheduled to start Sunday against the Marlins. Wheeler is expected to return from Tommy John surgery next June.

All of the above pitchers are capable of putting up more strikeouts than innings pitched in a season. The Phillies, by contrast, do not have a single starting pitcher prospect in their organization who fits into that category.

It's Mackanin's job to sell what he has and he did his best before the Phillies' 81st loss of the season.

"They throw strikes," he said of Nola, Eickhoff and Asher. "They've got good stuff. They show no fear. They've shown a good mound presence. It's a nice feeling trying to look at those guys in the rotation next year and trying to piece it together."

Imagine then how nice it must feel being Mets manager Terry Collins.

@brookob