Phils Can’t Keep Up With Big Jays Bats

The Toronto Blue Jays had a powerful lineup before the MLB trade deadline, and since that time they bolstered their attack even further. That big attack came to Philly last night and overpowered the Phillies by an 8-5 score at Citizens Bank Park.

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The Jays got a pair of homeruns from AL MVP candidate 3rd baseman Josh Donaldson, who pushed hit total to 33 longballs on the year, and the 22nd of the year from 1st baseman Edwin Encarnacion.

For the host Phillies, rookie starter Aaron Nola actually battled the tough visitors batters evenly. Over 5 innings, Nola allowed 4 hits. But he was burned by an uncharacteristic 4 walks.

With one out in the top of the first, Donaldson slammed a solo homer off Nola to put the Jays up 1-0. The Phillies evened it up at 1-1 in the bottom of the 2nd when Jeff Francoeur drove his own solo homer, his 11th of the season, to center field.

That homer came off Blue Jays’ knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who can at times be unhittable. This was not one of those times. The Phils’ bats bashed Dickey around for 5 earned runs on 9 hits over just 4 innings.

In the top of the 3rd, Nola walked the bases loaded and would pay for it when Ezequiel Carrera grounded a 2-run single up the middle to push the Jays back in front by 3-1. In their half of the 3rd, the Phillies pulled one back when Cesar Hernandez singled home Cameron Rupp to make it a 3-2 game.

The Phillies pushed on top with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 4th on an RBI single by Cody Asche, who then scored on an RBI triple from Freddy Galvis. Dickey was saved from more damage thanks to a double play ball just before the two key hits.

In the bottom of the 5th, the Phils started with three consecutive singles. Francoeur grounded into a double play, again saving Toronto from big trouble. However, Chase Utley, who had led off the inning with the first of those singles, scored on the play to push the Phils lead out to 5-3.

For the top of the 6th, reliever Elvis Araujo replaced Nola. He walked ex-Phillie Ben Revere, then got the first out on a sacrifice bunt, then was replaced himself by Jeanmar Gomez. That’s when the bottom fell out for the Phillies, as the big Jays’ bats tuned up Gomez.

After back-to-back singles, the first of which scored Revere to make it a 5-4 game, Donaldson crushed his 2nd homer of the game off Gomez to put Toronto back on top by a 7-5 margin. One out later, Encarnacion ripped his homer, a solo liner to left that stretched that lead out to 8-5.

In just 2/3 of an inning, Gomez (1-3) allowed 4 runs, all of them earned, on 4 hits. After Dickey was out of the game for the Jays, their bullpen shut the Phillies’ bats out on just 2 hits the rest of the way. After Gomez, the Phils’ pen shut the Jays’ bats out on just 1 hit.

The loss was the 4th straight for the Phillies, their 6th in 7 games. The have just a 5-9 record going back over the last couple of weeks. So it’s safe to say, that nice hot stretch of the post-All Star Game period is long over. Rookie lefty Adam Morgan will try his best to slow those big Jays’ bats down in the quick series finale on Wednesday night at 7:05pm.