The Toronto Blue Jays headed to Citizens Bank Park looking to bounce back off a couple of disappointing days in Washington. Instead, they added another tally to that list as they fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 10-1 in the opener of their two game set.
Jose Berrios (4-2, 1.44) hasn’t had any off days this season until now. In tonight’s game, he lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing eight earned runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven.
The Phillies would get the offence rolling early, as Nick Castellanos put them on the board with a two out double in the 1st inning.
The scoring would continue as Kody Clemens hit a two run home run to push the lead to 3-0. Berrios would pitch a scoreless 3rd before Philadelphia broke it open in the bottom of the 4th.
Clemens would push across another run with a one out triple to make it 4-0. Between the next batch of runs, manager John Schneider would get ejected in the same inning after disputing a hit by pitch call on Kyle Schwarber, unfortunately for Berrios and the Blue Jays, that would load the bases for Bryce Harper.
Former Blue Jay Whit Merrifield would strike out before that, giving Berrios two out of his three outs needed to get out of the bases loaded jam, and it seemed he was one pitch closer to squeezing out of it as he worked Harper to an 0-2 count.
However, he did not get out of the inning as the next pitch was hit deep into the Philly night for a two out grand slam. Harper’s swing doubled the Phillies’ lead to 8-0. Shortly after, Trevor Richards would relieve Berrios and get the final out of the inning.
On the other side of the scoresheet, Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez (1-3, 3.68) did more than enough to help out his team tonight. Sanchez put up seven innings, giving up one run over six hits while walking two and striking out seven to earn his 2nd win of the year.
The Jays’ only bright spot would come at the top of the 7th when Isiah Kiner-Falefa broke the shutout bid with an RBI groundout.
An Edmundo Sosa triple and a Kody Clemens groundout would later extend the Phillies lead to 10-1, the score would stay the same as the Phillies took game one of this two game set.
The Blue Jays are now 4-11 in their last 15 games as their record drops to 16-20.
Chris Bassitt (2-5, 5.45) will be on the mound tomorrow afternoon to start the second of two games as he takes on Aaron Nola (4-1, 3.32) who will get the start for the Phillies.
