Rays' Zach Eflin Bats Well, But Phillies Pal Aaron Nola Outshines Him

ST. PETERSBURG — Zach Eflin experienced almost all the feelings on Tuesday.

The oddness of going up against his longtime former Phillies teammates. The 50:50 mix of excitement and fear. The pride of playing against Aaron Nola, his best friend and big baseball brother. The thrill of competition. The fun of subtle feedback.

And finally the frustration of how it ended when his Rays went down 3-1 in a quiet Fourth of July.

“Obviously it’s a shame to lose that game to the Phillies,” Eflin said.

“But I’ll tell you what, I’ve enjoyed every single day that I’ve competed with these guys and it’s been fun to kind of step out of the way and compete against them. There are just a lot of great people over there and on top of that I got to compete against my best friend. As well as he did, it would have been nice to win the game. But I’m super happy for him and looking forward to trying to get the series right (Wednesday).”

The loss marked the Rays’ third straight loss — their second loss in three games in the past two-and-a-half weeks from none before — and their 12th loss in their last 22 games, dropping their top American League record to 57-31.

Eflin certainly played his part on Tuesday, putting in seven strong innings, allowing two runs, conceding four hits and notching nine strikeouts. But Nola was better, managing an eighth-field shutout before allowing a one-off home run against new American League All-Star Wander Franco on his 104th and final pitch. Nola only allowed four more hits to earn a career-high 12.

Manager Kevin Cash said Nola is the difference.

“In the end he just beat us,” Cash said. “Lots of swing and miss. I know he put in a lot of strikeouts. We don’t see him very often and we like to think our offense can certainly find ways to make runs and we just didn’t (Tuesday).”

Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola (27) scored 12 hits in 7 1/3 innings in Tuesday’s 3-1 triumph over the Rays at Tropicana Field.

[ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

Eflin and Nola have been friends since playing Double-A together in the Phillies system in 2015, and they’re close enough to attend each other’s weddings. With both teams having Monday off, they hung together for a while and broke up, Nola said with a mutual “Good luck man. It wasn’t too much chatter.”

Both said it was strange to compete against each other.

Nola likened it to playing against his brother Austin, who is a catcher with the Padres.

“Some kind of emotion, the nerves,” he said. “But it was great, man. It was fun facing Ef out there. We’ve been together for so long. He was angry tonight too. He rolled, just like he does. He was fast all the time. Every time I sat down in the dugout, he outnumbered every opponent twice. That was an old man. It was fun competing against him.”

Eflin also acknowledged how different it was.

“It was weird playing against Nola on that side instead of being in the dugout with him and all that stuff,” he said. “I had more nervousness during this game than any other World Series or playoff game I had last year.

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“But I’m so grateful for Aaron’s friendship and mentoring and for what a teammate he is. You always cheer for guys like that. He has helped me a lot in my career. He’s been a big brother to me throughout my career and really helped me find my feet in the big leagues. So it was really cool to keep up with him and just watch him from a distance this time.”

Eflin got off to a strong start, scoring three in game one and hitting two quick outs in game two, but then gave up consecutive doubles to Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm in a six-pitch span.

The 1-0 lead lasted until the seventh minute when Bryce Harper hit a double to the left and scored with a Stott single after JT Realmuto reached the ball due to a mistake by Franco. The Phillies added another off-reliever, Jalen Beeks, in the eighth run; The Rays conceded just one hit after Franco’s home run.

Eflin maintained close ties with some of the Phillies’ positional players and Realmuto in particular, who had caught him for most of the previous four seasons and even more so when they managed their remarkable promotion to the National League pennant last year. Seeing your former teammates in the batter’s box and doing the mental gymnastics of trying to think what they think made the day’s challenge even greater.

“I felt super weird,” Eflin said, “but it was really fun.”

With the business portion of the visit over, Eflin said he’s looking forward to a more relaxed time with his ex-boyfriends over the next two days and will receive his 2022 National League championship ring on Wednesday.

“There were a lot of smiles and a lot of little comments as people ran off the field, so honestly it was a fun game,” said Eflin. “I really had a great time and it was nice to see the familiar faces again.”

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