Phillies' bats stay quiet to spoil another sharp Nola outing

SEATTLE -- This is not how the Phillies wanted to start their West Coast swing.

One night after Zack Wheeler's struggles continued in the series opener, the Phils squandered a solid outing by Aaron Nola in a 4-1 loss to the Mariners on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park. The bats that helped drive the club's nine-game winning streak from Iowa to Minneapolis to Philadelphia have yet to make their way to Seattle.

“It's tough, but kind of like we just talked about in here -- I think we ran into two really good starting pitchers the last couple days, and just didn't get the job done,” said shortstop Trea Turner, who went 0-for-4 for the fourth time in his past five games. “I don't feel like we're beating ourselves or doing some stupid stuff. I feel like we just got beaten. You move on, you can live with those and you tip your cap to those guys over there.”

Early on, the Phillies looked poised to do to Mariners starter George Kirby what they've done to so many other pitchers over the past two weeks. Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford connected for three consecutive singles off Kirby in the second inning to plate the game's first run.

From there, however, the Phils managed only two hits the rest of the way. Kirby retired 15 straight batters from the third inning until Bryce Harper's two-out single in the eighth inning ended his night. The Phillies finished the game with six hits -- none for extra bases.

“He kind of strangled us tonight,” interim manager Don Mattingly said of Kirby. “Outside of those first couple innings. Second inning, we got a bunch of hits in a row -- and really after that, we didn't really get a whole lot going. He was good tonight.”

The inability to get anything going offensively spoiled another encouraging start by Nola. The veteran righty tossed six innings of two-run ball, allowing only three hits while striking out seven and walking three.

Nola now has a 2.60 ERA over his past six starts. He's allowed two runs or fewer in all but one of those outings. Once again, however, the Phillies provided him with little support. This was the 12th time in Nola's 27 starts that the Phillies scored one run or fewer while he was the pitcher of record.

“It feels pretty good,” Nola said of his recent stretch. “My pitches and command feel pretty nice right now.”

Nola's outing was about the only thing that went right for the Phillies on a day when the rival Braves beat the Dodgers to extend their NL East lead to 4 1/2 games over the Phils. The D-backs also rallied to beat the Cubs, trimming the Phillies’ lead over Arizona – the team currently on the outside looking in -- to three games.

Following Wednesday’s finale in Seattle and three games vs. the Angels this weekend, the Phillies wrap up this nine-game road trip with a pivotal three-game set against those D-backs.

“I think just the losses [are tough], not looking at all nine,” Mattingly said. “Just looking at tonight, we just didn't get enough going. Nola kept us in it and gave us some chances, but we just really didn't get anything going after that second inning.”

Philadelphia arrived in Seattle late Sunday night having trimmed that deficit to three games and in a prime position to cut into it even more this week. After all, the Phillies are playing the sub-.500 Mariners while the Braves battle the first-place Dodgers.

That, however, has not come to fruition through the first two games.

On the bright side, the Phillies will turn to Jesús Luzardo -- arguably their best pitcher for the past few months -- for the series finale. Luzardo is 8-1 with a 2.33 ERA over his past 16 outings dating to May 25. The Phillies are 14-2 in those games.

“It's tough; they played us really well these first two games,” Nola said. “ … Got to come out tomorrow and try to get that game before we head out to Anaheim.”