The Phillies started the week off on a bad note tonight. They came into this evening's game coming off of a series win against their division rival Nationals. With their record back at .500, the Phillies sent Kyle Kendrick to the mound to pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays, who are in town for two games. Opposing would be former-Phil J.A. Happ, who made his first start of the season.
The Blue Jays would get on the board quickly in the first inning as Jose Reyes opened the game with a home run on the third pitch he saw. The Blue Jays would score again in the first inning on an RBI single from Juan Francisco.
The Jays would score again in the second inning and that would be all the runs that crossed the plate as J.A. Happ and the Blue Jays' bullpen held the Phils scoreless. Happ went five innings and struck out two en route to his first win in his first start of the year.
Kyle Kendrick struggled with his command tonight – walking three batters and allowing seven hits over seven frames. Despite going deep into the game, Kendrick took the loss after allowing three runs. The Phillies offense, who hasn't scored since yesterday's game in the first inning, was held to just seven hits by the Jays' bullpen.
Jake Diekman would be the only other Phillie to pitch and he did it splendidly – tossing two perfect innings and collecting three strike outs in the process.
Impact: Tonight's loss only puts the Phillies a game and a half out of first place and back at .500 (15-15). Despite the effort from Kyle Kendrick, who showed no offensive support from his team, he took his third loss of the year and the Phillies were shut out – not a great momentum booster. But it's early in the season, so there's always tomorrow's game.
Up Next: Tomorrow night Cole Hamels (0-2, 6.75 ERA) will take on Drew Hutchison (1-3, 3.82 ERA) in the finale of this two game meeting. Hamels was hit hard in his last start against the Mets and Hutchison took the loss against Kansas City his last time out.
Erik Seybold is a writer for Philliedelphia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ErikSeyboldPHI.
