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PHILADELPHIA -- When an offense is struggling to score like that of the Philadelphia Phillies, it only takes one inning and a few bad pitches to ruin a starting pitcher's day. The San Diego Padres were stymied by starter Aaron Nola for much of Saturday, but the two runs they scored in the seventh inning made the difference in a 2-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
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"No offense again," Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin said. "It was a tough loss."
The Phillies (28-58), who set a club record with 23 one-run losses before the All-Star break, have lost five in a row while the Padres (38-49) have won five of six. San Diego will try for a sweep Sunday before Major League Baseball pauses for the All-Star break.
Nola (6-6) was staked to a 1-0 lead thanks to a fifth-inning solo homer by Maikel Franco. The right-hander was cruising through six innings, having thrown just 74 pitches through the shutout frames with six strikeouts and one hit allowed. At one point, he retired 12 straight between the second and sixth innings.
Hunter Renfroe doubled down the right-field line to start the seventh. Two batters later, Carlos Asuaje laced a two-out double off the wall in right-center field to tie the game at 1-1. Austin Hedges, who homered twice in San Diego's 4-3 win in Philadelphia Friday, singled home Asuaje for the eventual winning run.
While Nola had his afternoon spoiled by a few mistakes, the late-inning magic for San Diego gave starter Jhoulys Chacin (8-7) a deserved victory. The righty allowed one run on just three hits in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked two.
"He was really good," Padres manager Andy Green said. "He located when he needed to locate, made one mistake all day to Maikel Franco. ... Outside of that, he kept us in the game and he was getting matched pitch-for-pitch with Nola over there."
The Phillies, after Nola surrendered the lead in the top of the inning, put runners on second and third with one out on a Tommy Joseph double in the bottom of the seventh. But reliever Kirby Yates got Franco to pop out to shortstop and induced an inning-ending lineout to left field off the bat of Andrew Knapp to escape trouble.
Lefty Ryan Buchter shut down the Phillies in the eighth, paving the way for Brandon Maurer to earn his 19th save.
Chacin didn't allow a hit for the first three innings and faced the minimum through 4 1/3 before Franco stepped into the box in the fifth and launched his 13th homer on a no-doubt blast to left field. Chacin then retired the next six batters he faced before a walk to Nick Williams and Joseph's double ended his outing.
"I didn't feel my stuff was that (good) today but I made some good pitches," Chacin said. "Keeping the ball down was the biggest thing. Nola was pitching a really good game so I knew it was going to be a close game. I was trying to keep my team in there and give them a chance to score some runs for me."
Nola had his fourth straight positive outing. Just three weeks ago he had a 4.76 ERA. His ERA dropped to 3.59 after allowing two runs, four hits and nine strikeouts in eight innings.
Going into the All-Star break, it's as good a finish to the first half as he could have hoped.
"Nola was as sharp as I've seen anybody all year," the opposing manager Green said.
Said Mackanin: "Nola was great. What a performance. He's been good for a while now."
Saturday, though, it wasn't enough.
NOTES: San Diego C Austin Hedges tallied his 40th RBI Saturday, second-most among catchers in the National League. ... Phillies GM Matt Klentak, in a pregame media session, said he expects 2B Cesar Hernandez, IF/OF Howie Kendrick and RHP Vince Velasquez all to be activated at some point during the club's road trip following the All-Star break. ... Both teams are sending a reliever to the All-Star game as their only representative. San Diego is sending LHP Brad Hand while the Phillies representative is RHP Pat Neshek. ... To close the three-game series Sunday, San Diego sends RHP Trevor Cahill (3-2, 2.96 ERA) to the mound to face Phillies RHP Jerad Eickhoff (0-7, 4.93), who is still in search of his first win in what will be his 15th start of 2017.
