WASHINGTON -- The first time Aaron Nola experienced failure in baseball was when he was pitching for Single-A Clearwater in 2014.
He had never allowed five runs in a game, and then all of the sudden, in his first game as a pitcher in the Phillies organization in 2014 for the Clearwater Threshers, against Detroit Tigers minor leaguers in Lakeland, Fla., it happened. He got rocked.
"I didn't really know how to walk back on the bus," Nola said. "I had never been on a new team and given up a bunch of runs. It was kind of weird. But you learn from it. It happens."
Nola said he had some good people who got him through the tough times. He mentioned Carlos Arroyo, David Lundquist and Mickey Morandini. They all taught him that to get where he wanted to go he had to fail first - several times.
Andrew Painter went through all of that last year, in his first year back from Tommy John Surgery at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
He had some highs, but a bunch of lows as well. Expectations of him arriving to the Phillies in "July-ish" never materialized.
But now, his day has finally arrived.
He will make his Major League debut -- finally -- Tuesday night against the Washington Nationals, a full three seasons after he was supposed to make the starting rotation as a teenager and the top pitching prospect in baseball, but suffered an injury in his first start of Spring Training in 2023 that set him back all this time.
In preparation for this start, Painter said he was "thankful for the failure" and that it would fuel him going forward.
Andrew Painter explains to @AntSanPhilly why he’s thankful for the failure he experienced at Triple-A last season. pic.twitter.com/6klgaQ21Ut
"I think Triple-A was a good place to get the failure and really experience it there," he said. "Because if you go through and you don't have any failure and you reach the Big Leagues, I think that's really tough. So, to be able to get that little bit of failure not on the biggest stage, was a good thing."
It was the same lesson Nola learned. The two have talked. Painter is inquisitive. He's called himself a sponge as he has absorbed a lot of information from the veterans like Nola and Zack Wheeler on the Phillies starting staff.
His journey has been long and arduous with setbacks along the way, but he's ready.
"When you go through surgery and rehab like he did, you can't guarantee anything," Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham said. "(But) he's at a point now where he's ready to find out in the Big Leagues where he's at and we'll make adjustments along the way.
"But this wasn't given to him. He had to earn it. He pitched well this spring. ... he learned a lot about himself and how to handle routines and all the little things that you have to be good at to be a Major League starter. ... It's cool to see him get paid off for all his hard work."
Drive down I-95 150 miles and another top prospect is ready to make his Big League debut almost simultaneously.
Porter Martone, the 2025 first round pick of the Flyers, took the ice for a morning skate at Capital One Arena in advance of the Flyers game against the Washington Capitals.
Martone's last 72 hours have been a whirlwind.
On Saturday morning, he was preparing for the NCAA quarterfinal with his Michigan State team against Big 10 rival Wisconsin. The Spartans were preparing for a National Championship run, led by Martone, who was their leading scorer with 50 points in 35 games.
Failure found him, too that night, as they lost in overtime, ending his team's championship dream.
"We had expectations there at Michigan State, going on a deep run and hopefully making the Frozen Four," Martone said. "It was an unfortunate loss to Wisconsin. ... That night I just tried to spend it with teammates. ... I feel like we created a brotherhood there at Michigan State."
Like Nola and Painter, Martone had experienced a major disappointment -- but it wasn't his first. That actually marked two this year already, as he was also captain for Team Canada in the World Junior Championships, only to come up short, finishing with a bronze medal.
And while Martone stayed close to his Spartan teammates Saturday night to get over the devastating defeat together, When he opened his eyes Sunday morning, he had to immediately set his sights on another prize.
Within hours he was signing an entry level contract with the Flyers, catching a flight to Philly, and getting his immigration paperwork processed so he could join the Flyers and possibly play on Tuesday.
There was a thought that the Flyers should let him breathe for a minute. Take it all in. Be around the team for a few days before they plugged him into the lineup.
But the team has clawed back within two points of a playoff spot. There's only nine games left. Ultimately, this was the time to throw him into the pool.
Lineup updates for #PHIvsWSH:
• Dan Vladar gets the start in net.
• Forward Porter Martone makes his NHL Debut. Alex Bump comes out of the lineup.
Hear from head coach Rick Tocchet ahead of tonight's matchup. pic.twitter.com/q8tkMGKGZX
"We had a good debate about it," coach Rick Tocchet said. "We sat around the table but finally we said, 'Hey, let's just get him right in. Why not? I mean, he just played and he's played in some big games this year, why not get him in right away instead of waiting?"
It makes sense - especially to do it on the road, where there'll be less external pressure instead of doing it inside a home building where expectations are going to be exponentially higher.
When Martone took the ice, he was immediately put on a line with veterans Christian Dvorak and Travis Konencny. Like Painter with the Phillies veteran pitchers, Martone asked a lot of questions of both veteran forwards while out there.
"Hopefully me and [Dvorak] can help settle him in and focus in on the details so we can get the win," Konecny said.
Dvorak concurred.
"He's really just asking questions and trying to learn systems and everything because he's jumping right into it," Dvorak said. "So, it'll be fun."
Philadelphia sports fans will be torn. There's no database for something like this, but the odds of two franchises in the same city debuting their top prospect on the same night (against teams from the same city, no less) are immeasurable. It's likely never happened before and it may never happen again.
Do you watch Painter? Do you watch Martone? Have one on the TV, and one on the iPad? Picture-in-Picture?
Either way, it's a big day, not just for the present, but the future of two Philadelphia franchises.
And whatever happens from here forward, both finally have earned their right to be in the best leagues in the world for their craft, because they dealt with failure, and they'll be the better for it in the long run.
