BIOGRAPHY
Aaron Nola was born on June 4, 1993, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is a pitcher in the MLB.
While attending Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, Nola was named Class 5A State Player of the Year by the Louisiana Sportswriters Association and voted “Mr. Baseball” for the State of Louisiana. During his junior and senior year, he threw 214 strikeouts and had a record of 21-2.
He was drafted by Toronto Blue Jays in the 22nd round in 2011, but chose to attend Louisiana State University, because he saw how much his older brother Austin enjoyed it and how renown the program was. As a freshman, he posted a 7-4 record and a 3.61 ERA while allowing the fewest walks and striking out the most batters in the SEC. In 2013, as a sophomore, he was voted SEC Pitcher of the Year and became just the fourth pitcher in LSU history to fire three shutouts in one season. After his junior year, Nola became the only player to be named the league's Pitcher of the Year (2013 and 2014) on two occasions and has been known as one of the best pitchers to ever play in the SEC.
Nola was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round, seventh overall, in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, and made his professional debut with the Clearwater Threshers. He was promoted swiftly throughout the minors and even was named a 2015 Baseball America Double-A All-Star, and a 2015 All-Star Futures Game selection.
Nola made his major league debut for the Phillies on July 21, 2015, and earned his first career win July 26, throwing 7 2⁄3 innings. He finished his first year in the majors with a 6-2 record with a 3.59 ERA. Going into his second year in the majors Nola went on a hot streak posting a 5-2 record with a 1.68 ERA early on in the season. On the 2016 season, his 9.81 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched; at the time, 6th-best for any Phillies pitcher ever.
As his career continued, he kept improving and in 2017, had a fielding percentage of 1.000, which led all NL pitchers. After finishing 2017 with a 3.54 ERA, he followed it up the next year by being selected as a 2018 National League All-Star. On July 9, Nola notched his 36th career win in a 3-1 victory over the New York Mets, tying him with Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander for most wins in a Phillies pitcher's first 79 career starts. He also became the first to 12 wins and an ERA under 3.50 in the team's first 89 games of a season since 1916. Nola held left-handed batters to a .187 batting average, the lowest average among major league pitchers, on his way to being a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award.
Nola was selected to pitching Opening Day for the fourth year in a row in 2021, the longest streak by a Phillies pitcher since Steve Carlton opened ten seasons in a row between 1977 and 1986. On April 18, 2021, Nola threw his first complete game shutout in the MLB, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 2–0. Less than two months later, on June 1, Nola recorded his 1,000th career strikeout. He was the fastest Phillies pitcher to reach that number, doing so in 913 innings, and joined Cole Hamels and Steve Carlton as the only Phillies pitchers to record 1,000 or more strikeouts before the age of 28. On June 25, Nola struck out 10 consecutive batters in a game against the Mets, tying Tom Seaver's April 22, 1970 record for most consecutive strikeouts in a game. For the 2021 season, he had the lowest LOB percentage in the majors among pitchers, at 66.8%.
On October 3, 2022, Nola started the Phillies' playoff-clinching win over the Houston Astros, carrying a perfect game through 6+2⁄3 innings. Nola finished the 2022 season with a 11–13 record, posting a 3.25 ERA and 235 strikeouts in 32 starts and 205 innings. Nola also lead the Majors in strikeout-to-walk ratio. Five days after the Phillies clinched in Houston, Nola threw 6+2⁄3 shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2 of the 2022 National League Wild Card Series as the Phillies won the series 2–0. On October 14, Nola started Game 3 of the 2022 National League Division Series, the first Phillies home playoff game in eleven years. He allowed one unearned run and five hits over six innings. Nola started Game 2 of the 2022 National League Championship Series, as well, against the San Diego Padres. During the game, Aaron and Austin Nola became the first pair of brothers in Major League Baseball postseason history to face each other as pitcher and batter.