Phillies Lose Aaron Nola-built Momentum With Concerning Loss

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TORONTO - One day after beating three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, the Phillies on Friday night were handled all too easily by a rookie pitcher who didn't even make it out of the first inning in his previous start.

Left-hander Ryan Borucki gave up two runs over 6 1/3 innings to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-2 win over the Phillies and Jake Arrieta at Rogers Centre.

The loss was the Phillies' 11th in their last 17 games. They entered the day three games behind first-place Atlanta in the NL East and a game back in the NL wild-card race.

Arrieta pitched into the seventh inning and allowed just six hits and four runs. However, two of the hits were homers, accounting for three of the Jays' runs.

The Phillies' feeble offense, which beat Washington and Scherzer, 2-0, on the strength of Aaron Nola's pitching and Odubel Herrera's late two-run homer Thursday, could not overcome that.

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Arrieta is one of baseball's top ground-ball pitchers, but it was a pair of homers - and a lack of offensive support - that hurt him most in this game. He gave up a solo homer to Kendrys Morales in the second inning and a two-run shot (after a leadoff walk) to Billy McKinney in the third inning.

Entering the night, Arrieta had allowed just two homers in his previous seven starts and his 52.9 percent ground-ball percentage was the third best in baseball. 

The Phillies' offense did little to support Arrieta. The Phils opened the game with a pair of singles against Borucki and got a run on a sacrifice fly by Wilson Ramos. The Phils had two more hits in the second inning but got nothing out of that as centerfielder Kevin Pillar gunned down Scott Kingery at the plate for the second out in the inning.

The Phils got two more singles against Borucki with one out in the fifth but did nothing with that threat, either. The Phils did not score their second run until Kingery's solo homer against Borucki in the seventh.

Borucki has made 11 major-league starts. He did not make it out of the first inning, and allowed six runs, in his previous start against the Yankees.

Borucki's father, Ray, was an infielder in the Phillies' minor-league system, reaching Triple A in 1982.

Arrieta left the game with no outs and two men on base in the seventh. Hector Neris came on and struck out the side.

The Phils put two men on base against Ken Giles in the ninth, but Giles was able to get out of it and nail down the save by striking out Cesar Hernandez and Rhys Hoskins to end the game.

The Phillies went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

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