Bite Down on This: Blue Jays 8, Phillies 7

Maybe it's interleague play. Maybe it's the evil month of June (of which more later). Maybe it's playing at home. Maybe it's the ongoing championship hangover/karmic balancing act from 2008. But things really aren't going well for the Phils right now, as the team's run of hard luck continued in today's painful 8-7 loss to visiting Toronto that capped a three-game Blue Jays sweep. 

Facing junkballing lefty (and son of former Phillies coach) Brad Mills, the home team showed some offense early with home runs from Jayson Werth and Jimmy Rollins, and got another solo shot from just-recalled John Mayberry Jr against the possibly pseudonymous Dirk Hayhurst in the fifth to go up 5-3. But Joe Blanton had his worst start in a month, allowing nine hits including two homers in 5.1 innings, and despite some good clutch pitching with runners on from Chan Ho Park, J.C. Romero and Tyler Walker, the bullpen ultimately couldn't hold the lead. In the eighth inning, a seeing-eye single, a Pedro Feliz error on a dead double-play ball, a a bloop single to score one run and a Scott Rolen double to plate another put Toronto up 7-5. The Phils rallied to tie the game in the bottom half on a Greg Dobbs pinch-homer and a two-out RBI single by Shane Victorino, but Victorino was caught stealing to end the inning. In the first at-bat of the ninth, Rod Barajas homered to dead center field off Ryan Madson to provide Toronto's margin of victory; Jeremy Accardo, the eighth Toronto pitcher of the afternoon, stranded two Phillies to end it. So at least we wore out the Jays' bullpen for their weekend series at Washington... 

The Phillies stay home for three more delightful interleague tilts against AL East bottom-feeder Baltimore. It's hoped that we'll win at least one.