MIAMI -- Aaron Nola entered his 29th start of the season on a hot streak. Over his previous four games -- all of which the Phillies had won -- Nola had posted a 1.44 ERA with 24 strikeouts and just six walks.

But Nola cooled off against the Marlins, getting hit early and often as he went just 4 2/3 innings in the Phillies¡¯ 9-5 loss on Saturday afternoon at loanDepot park -- Nola¡¯s shortest start since June 13, when he went 3 2/3 vs. the Red Sox. The reason? Nola¡¯s command was off from the start.

In the first inning, Nola left a sinker -- what he called a ¡°side-step sinker¡± -- down the middle and low in the zone to Connor Norby, who promptly sent the ball deep to center field for a two-run homer. By Nola¡¯s 101st and final pitch, he¡¯d allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits (two homers) and two walks while striking out five.

¡°[I was] a little out of sync,¡± Nola said. ¡°Too many balls -- threw away too many pitches today. And then when I did get over the plate a little bit ¡­ they put some good swings on them, found some holes -- two home runs, big home run in the first and a couple walks. I mean, [it] sucks when you don't finish five innings at least, so the bullpen has to eat those innings up.¡±

Nola was working with a tweaked arsenal, leaning on his four-seam fastball and his knuckle curve more than usual. Nola¡¯s four-seamer accounted for 37% of his pitches vs. Miami (vs. his season average 27.2% usage) while he used his knuckle curve, the main offering in his arsenal (32.9% of his pitches this season), 3.1 percentage points more than usual. He shied away from his sinker and his changeup as a result.

¡°Those pitches have been feeling pretty good lately, but the changeup really hadn't been feeling good all year,¡± Nola said. ¡°So it would have been nice to use that, but just -- I threw a few of them and I didn't really feel good again. So, you know, it's a little bit harder just pitching with two pitches. So I really just tried to command those pitches as best as possible. They laid off some good ones, but I feel like a lot of the curveballs were balls out of hand, so they were easy for them to lay off of.¡±

Added catcher Garrett Stubbs: ¡°I thought the curveball was really good -- there wasn't a lot of hard contact on the curveball. I don't think we located the fastballs exactly where we wanted to -- which happens -- and also felt like when we didn't locate the fastballs, some of them were ground balls that just found holes.¡±

While Stubbs helped Nola navigate the Marlins¡¯ less experienced lineup, he also bailed Nola out a bit offensively. Stubbs took advantage of Miami¡¯s equally inexperienced defense, opting to bunt in his first two plate appearances -- and reaching base both times. In the third, it resulted in a Little League triple (a single and two errors); he quickly scored on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Schwarber. Then, in the fifth, Stubbs laid another bunt down the third-base line for an RBI single.

¡°I just try to tap it where they're not standing, and then run for my life,¡± Stubbs said. ¡°Something that I like to use as often as I can, because hitting is really tough -- especially when you're in there every five days. So I practice it a lot, because I know that timing is everything with hitting and every fifth day, getting your timing down is not easy, so I like to use [bunting] as a way to help the team score runs -- like the second one, I didn't plan on getting a hit there. I was just trying to score the run from third, and ended up getting on first base, too.¡±

Stubbs delivered defensively as well, catching a popup in foul territory to end a troublesome fifth inning -- and narrowly avoiding a collision with first baseman Bryce Harper. The catch closed out the fifth before the Marlins could tack on any more runs (they had a 5-3 lead), but Miami had already closed the door on Nola.

¡°They're human -- that's what happened,¡± Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of Nola. ¡°They're just human beings, and don't forget that they're human. I don't care how good of a pitcher or hitter some of these superstars in the league [are]. ¡­ You're allowed to have a couple bad starts here and there. ¡­

¡°We got to him today, but he's a really good pitcher, and it's not like I'm looking forward to seeing his name when we enter a series.¡±