5 Starting Pitchers Quietly Having a Great Start to the Second Half

Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies

It's can be hard to get noticed when you play on one of baseball's worst teams, but Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola is doing everything he can upon taking the hill. His 3.12 ERA and 3.72 SIERA over 112.1 innings this year already is great, but it included a lot of work after digging himself into an early hole -- despite posting a 56.3% ground-ball rate through the season's first two months, he stumbled to a 5.06 ERA and 8.0% walk rate in that span.

However, his 4.07 SIERA during that time told us he was also getting a little unlucky. And once things started falling his way a little more, it didn't take long for the results to follow.

Through 32 innings of work since the All-Star break, the young right-hander has compiled a 1.97 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate, and .279 wOBA against. Although he's surrendering hard contact slightly more often (30.2% in the first half, 31.0% in the second half), his line-drive rate allowed is nearly eight percentage points lower than what it was during the first three and a half months (20.4% in first half, 12.6% so far in second half).