Aaron Nola spent most of Tuesday night doing exactly what the Phillies needed him to do.
He worked out of trouble. He limited damage. He kept Seattle within reach long enough for a lineup that had spent the previous week pulling games out of increasingly improbable places to find something.
It never did.
George Kirby shut down the Phillies after a brief second-inning burst, and the Mariners handed them a 4-1 loss at T-Mobile Park, their second straight defeat after arriving in Seattle with a nine-game winning streak.
This one looked nothing like Monday's 9-2 loss, when Zack Wheeler was hit for eight runs and four home runs.
It counted exactly the same.
And with Atlanta beating the Dodgers earlier Tuesday, the Phillies fell 4½ games behind the Braves in the National League East.
The Phillies struck first against Kirby in the second inning. Bryson Stott singled. Brandon Marsh followed with another. Justin Crawford then drove Stott home with the third consecutive single of the inning.
For a moment, it appeared Philadelphia might be starting another one of those nights.
Instead, that was essentially the offense.
Kirby took over from there. He retired 15 consecutive Phillies from the third inning until Bryce Harper singled with two outs in the eighth. Philadelphia finished with six hits, none for extra bases, and managed only two hits after its three-single sequence in the second.
Kyle Schwarber went 0-for-4. Trea Turner went 0-for-4. Alec Bohm went 0-for-3.
There were no sustained rallies, no late traffic and, this time, no dramatic escape waiting in the ninth.
Kirby deserves a large portion of the credit.
The Seattle right-hander worked 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits with nine strikeouts and one walk. He improved to 9-10 and lowered his ERA to 4.02.
The Phillies simply never made him uncomfortable.
That made Nola's night feel particularly expensive.
Nola allowed only three hits over six innings. He struck out seven, walked three and surrendered two runs. His ERA dropped to 5.03, a number that still carries the weight of a difficult first half but increasingly fails to describe the pitcher the Phillies have been getting lately.
Over his past six starts, Nola has a 2.60 ERA. He has allowed two runs or fewer in five of them.
That matters considerably more now because of what is happening elsewhere in the rotation.
Wheeler has spent the last several weeks trying to rediscover his command. Andrew Painter is still navigating his first major-league season. The Phillies need stability somewhere near the front of the rotation.
Nola is beginning to provide it.
Seattle's first run came in the second, when Cal Raleigh continued his personal demolition of Phillies pitching.
Raleigh homered off Nola to tie the game at 1, giving him four home runs in a remarkable five-plate-appearance stretch against Philadelphia dating to Monday night.
After that, Nola held Seattle down until the sixth.
Julio RodrÃguez singled with one out, stole second and scored when Josh Naylor lined a single into center. That gave Seattle a 2-1 lead.
Nola finished the inning and his night after 93 pitches.
It should have left the Phillies with a chance.
Instead, Seattle separated in the seventh. Brooks Raley allowed a pair of runs when Dominic Canzone singled home two, pushing the margin to 4-1.
That was plenty.
The lack of support for Nola has become a strange subplot of his season. Tuesday marked the 12th time in his 27 starts that the Phillies scored no more than one run while he was the pitcher of record.
Nearly half his starts.
His personal record fell to 5-10, but there was little about Tuesday that looked like the work of a pitcher with 10 losses.
The Phillies can live with this version of Nola. Six innings, three hits and two runs will play in September. It will play in October, too.
What they cannot afford is making that kind of start feel wasted before the bullpen phone ever rings.
On Monday, Wheeler put them in a hole almost immediately. On Tuesday, Nola kept them close and watched the lineup disappear after the second inning.
Different problems. Same result.
That distinction matters.
The Phillies did not come to Seattle needing to prove they could get hot. They had already done that. Nine consecutive wins had dragged them back into the division race and changed the feel of their season.
This trip was supposed to test whether they could keep pushing.
Instead, two games against a Seattle club below .500 have cost them ground while Atlanta has moved the other direction.
There is still plenty of baseball left. There is also considerably less of it than there was a month ago.
The Phillies have spent much of August showing how dangerous they can be when the rotation, lineup and bullpen begin working together.
Through two games in Seattle, they have gotten only pieces.
And at this point in the calendar, pieces aren't enough.
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