"The story for me was Nola, he gave us five good innings," manager Pete Mackanin said. "That's two outings in a row, I think that's gonna do a lot for his confidence."
Maintaining that confidence will be important for the former first-round Draft pick, who is out to show this season that he's ready to take the next step as a starter. After faltering near the end of his 2016 campaign -- he went 2-5 with a 8.31 ERA over his last nine starts before a season-ending injury -- Nola is 1-0 with a 3.27 ERA over his first 11 innings of work.