BOSTON _ A half-hour after the frenzied trade deadline passed and he finally put down his phone, Phillies general manager Matt Klentak was asked for his impressions of the post-July 31 landscape across baseball.
"I don't even know if I know the full extent of everything that happened," Klentak said. "This is one of the first times I'm coming up for air in the last few days."
It was that crazy. On Tuesday alone, more than 10 trades were completed, the culmination of a week in which the transactions came fast and furious. But while other National League contenders made moves for starting pitching _ the Chicago Cubs acquired Cole Hamels, the Atlanta Braves grabbed Kevin Gausman, even the surging Pittsburgh Pirates snagged Chris Archer _ the Phillies went for offense with Asdrubal Cabrera and Wilson Ramos and added lefty specialist Aaron Loup to the bullpen.
The starting rotation? Unchanged.
Klentak insisted he's "really excited" about the Phillies' starting pitching, with the last two nights at sold-out Fenway Park serving as Exhibits A and B for why his optimism, at least about the top of the rotation, is rooted in fact. After Aaron Nola threw a gem against the Boston Red Sox in an extra-innings loss, Jake Arrieta backed him up Tuesday night with seven sparkling innings in a split-salvaging 3-1 victory to stretch the Phils' division lead to one game over the Braves, who were in a rain delay.
The Red Sox have the highest-scoring offense in baseball, averaging 5.29 runs per game. But Nola and Arrieta combined to hold them to two runs on 10 hits in 15 innings, delivering the kind of 1-2 punch that no team _ even a runaway Red Sox train that has won 75 of its first 109 games _ wants to see in October.
This was vintage Arrieta. He leaned on his signature sinker, throwing it 46 times out of 94 pitches. He got 66 strikes, 10 on swings and misses. And he got stronger as the game wore on, retiring the Red Sox on 12 pitches in the fifth inning and seven in the seventh.
After posting a 0.90 ERA in five starts in May and a 6.66 ERA in five starts in June, Arrieta bounced back big in July with a 2.80 ERA in six starts, proving the Phillies need not fret about him slotting into the rotation as a solid No. 2 starter behind Nola, who has emerged as a Cy Young Award candidate.
Once again, though, the Phillies didn't give their pitching much margin for error. They took a lead in the second inning on Jorge Alfaro's RBI double and went up 2-0 in the fourth when Maikel Franco walked, went to third on Roman Quinn's double and chugged home ahead of center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.'s off-line throw on a sacrifice fly by Scott Kingery.
Other than that, the offense didn't do much, which is par for the course lately. The Phillies went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base. Since they blasted seven home runs last Thursday night in Cincinnati, they have scored 10 runs in the last five games.
There were sweaty moments in the ninth inning. Entrusted with a two-run lead, rookie phenom Seranthony Dominguez issued a leadoff walk to J.D. Martinez and hit Xander Bogaerts on the hand with a 99-mph fastball. But with Pat Neshek and Victor Arano loosening in the bullpen, Dominguez struck out Ian Kinsler, got pinch-hitting star Mookie Betts to pop out on the infield and struck out Brock Holt to end the game.
