Ace in the making: Pivetta gives Phillies stellar start in win over Orioles

BALTIMORE — Nick Pivetta bears an almost eerie resemblance to Roy Halladay, the former Phillies pitcher who died in a plane crash last fall.

On Wednesday at rainy Camden Yards, the exquisite ballpark that retains its throwback charm in its 27th year, Pivetta put on a pitching display reminiscent of the two-time Cy Young Award winner.

One game doesn't grant ace status to the 25-year-old Phillies right-hander. Only Jake Arietta and Aaron Nola warrant such designation for the 2018 Phillies.

But if Pivetta keeps having outings such as Wednesday's — and manager Gabe Kapler and general manager Matt Klentak both insist he's capable — the Phillies will be on their way to having three of a kind.

Pivetta served up Adam Jones' first-inning home run, which barely cleared the center-field wall and eluded a leaping Odubel Herrera's reach. He allowed only Chris Davis' fifth-inning double after that in a two-hit, seven-inning effort that formed a sturdy foundation for the Phillies' 4-1 win.

00"I felt really comfortable the whole entire time," Pivetta said. "I felt like I had command of all my pitches today. Whenever that happens, you know good things are going to happen."

The Phillies (24-16) are going places, and not just to St. Louis, where they begin a four-game series Thursday. The Orioles (13-29) are heading in the opposite direction after making the playoffs three times from 2012-16.

With the pitching the Phillies have been getting of late — nine straight games in which a starter allowed three runs or less with a 1.29 ERA over 56 innings — they are true postseason contenders. This is not pretend.

Pivetta, now 3-2 with a 3.72 ERA, was the real deal Wednesday. His 11 strikeouts equaled a career high.

"That was the best I've seen him look to date," Kapler said of Pivetta. "Dating all the way back to spring training we talked a little bit about his north-south attack, so attacking the top of the zone with his fastball and then the bottom of the zone with his breaking balls.

" ... But the fastball up today was sort of everything we had envisioned and imagined it could be and would be. And he just had an amazing amount of confidence on the mound delivering that pitch up in the zone and got lots of swings and misses with it."

Offensive support came from Cesar Hernandez, who homered and tripled, and consecutive two-out singles by Nick Williams, Maikel Franco and Pedro Florimon following Carlos Santana's walk that led to two go-ahead sixth-inning runs.

Now it'll be Vince Velasquez' turn. The streaky right-hander who struck out 12 Giants in a win last week starts Thursday against the Cardinals.

"We've known that both of those guys have elite stuff, and elite bat-missing abilities," Kapler said of Pivetta and Velasquez. "It's been a matter of them doing that in games, on a consistent basis, and for the most part, they've done that consistently."

Jerad Eickhoff, who has a lat injury, is close to coming off the disabled list. In his first rehab stint Tuesday, Eickhoff allowed five hits and three runs (two earned), walked one and struck out three in 3⅓ innings at Double-A Reading.

Before his spring training injury, Eickhoff had been part of the rotation since late in the 2015 season, when he had his best stretch. As a result, Klentak said Tuesday, he'd likely be plunked right back into the rotation when he's healthy — "He's earned that," the GM said — despite how well the five, including recent addition Zach Eflin, are pitching.

Pivetta seems to have cemented his spot, having now allowed five hits or fewer in eight of nine starts this year.

A fourth-round draft pick by the Washington Nationals out of New Mexico Junior College in 2013, he was acquired by the Phillies in a swap for closer Jonathan Papelbon in July of 2015. Papelbon's career ended in 2016 while that trade could keep paying off for the Phillies for years to come.

"You have to have dominating stuff to dominate," Kapler said. "You can get through a lineup and you can have some contact and have a lot of fortune with it.