Blue Jays slug past Phillies, Hellickson in series opener

By: Matt Rappa, managing editor

Final: Blue Jays 7, Phillies 2 ❖ Attendance: 24,753

PHILADELPHIA — Facing the potent Toronto Blue Jays (37-31) lineup did not bode well for right-hander Jeremy Hellickson and the Philadelphia Phillies (30-36) Wednesday evening in third of a four-game home-and-home series at Citizens Bank Park.

Four of the Blue Jays' nine hits went for extra bases, including solo home runs by first baseman Edwin Encarnacion and third baseman Josh Donaldson in the second and eighth innings, respectively.

Phillies left fielder Cody Asche accounted for half of the team's six hits on the evening. Asche had seven hits over his first 12 games (39 plate appearances) of the season entering the contest.

In suffering the series opener defeat, the Phillies lost their 90th interleague home game in franchise history. Right-hander Aaron Nola will look to split the series Thursday evening against former Phillies southpaw J.A. Happ, who is 7-3 with a 4.15 ERA and 1.475 WHIP ratio over 121 1/3 career innings at Citizens Bank Park.

WP: Marco Estrada (5-2, 2.58 ERA) ❖ LP: Jeremy Hellickson (4-5, 4.46 ERA)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
TOR	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	3	0	7	9	0
PHI	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	0

Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion and Phillies left fielder Cody Asche exchanged solo blasts in the second inning, their 17th and second home runs of the season, respectively.

The game remained knotted at one until the top of the fourth. Hellickson walked the first two batters — third baseman Josh Donaldson and Encarnacion — who then stole second and third to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Catcher Russell Martin hit a sacrifice fly RBI to left field and two batters later shortstop Ryan Goins hit a RBI single to center field, giving the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead.

A third run was added by Toronto in the frame, the next batter, via a RBI double by second baseman Devon Travis.

Similar to the second inning when the Blue Jays scored, Asche answered back with offensive production in the bottom-half of the fourth. Two batters after third baseman Andres Blanco walked, he hit a RBI double to deep right-center field, cutting the Phillies' deficit to 4-2. It was Asche's second double and fourth RBI of the season.

The Phillies threatened with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Ryan Howard entered as a pinch hitter for right fielder Peter Bourjos, representing the tying run with Cesar Hernandez on first following a single. With Toronto relief pitcher Jesse Chavez entering the game for RHP Marco Estrada, who threw 6 2/3 innings of two-run baseball on 104 pitches, Howard struck out swinging on four pitches to end the inning.

The score would remain in-tact until the top of the eighth inning, when facing reliever Hector Neris, Donaldson homered to left field for his 16th of the season. Another two runs scored later in the inning via a RBI groundout to the pitcher by Goins and a RBI single by Travis, giving the Blue Jays a 7-2 advantage.

Left-hander Elvis Araujo entered to record the final out of the inning for Neris, who has now allowed eight earned runs over his past eight relief appearances (6 1/3 innings).

Asche picked up his third hit of the night — and second double — with a one-out hit to deep right field in the ninth. The Phillies' offense failed to put together a rally. Maikel Franco (knee) made his first appearance since June 12 in the inning with runners on the corners and two outs, but he struck out, ending the game for the Phillies' 36th loss of the season..

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Starting Pitchers