"It's not June anymore.

Cliff Lee learned that – painfully – on Sunday afternoon.

Lee was baseball's best pitcher in the month of brides. He made five starts and won them all – the final three, overwhelmingly, by shutout. In 42 innings of work during the month, he allowed one run.

One.

That's what made the events of Sunday afternoon so shocking. Lee was the losing pitcher in 7-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. Now, it wasn't shocking that Lee lost a ballgame. Even though he had set a high standard for himself recently, a pitcher doesn't win every day. Losses happen, especially against a team that swings the bats as aggressively as the Blue Jays.

What made this defeat rather stunning was the way it happened, with Lee's giving up a flurry of home runs in the decisive eighth inning.

"It happened real quick, real fast," catcher Carlos Ruiz said.

"Especially with Cliff on the mound," centerfielder Shane Victorino added. "You don't think it would fall apart so quickly, but it happens. They came out swinging the bat, ready to go, and scored four quick runs."

The Jays didn't just score four runs in erasing a 4-3 deficit. They pounded their way to four runs. In a span of five batters, Eric Thames, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion all homered in a broad-daylight mugging of Lee, who had previously not allowed a home run since May 31.

Thames hit a first-pitch fastball over the centerfield wall to tie the game. Bautista hit 2-and-1 one cutter and Encarnacion a 0-and-1 fastball with a man on base to complete the assault.

No one saw this ambush coming. Lee breezed through the seventh 1-2-3 and had thrown just 89 pitches entering the eighth.

"The seventh was easy for him," manager Charlie Manuel said. "In the eighth, he started getting the ball up. He might have been getting a little tired. But he was sitting there at 89 pitches. He's been there all year long. They just got to him. They hit.

"Like I've told you guys before: They're going to get hits every now and then. That's life. That's the game. It's all part of it."

Lee said he felt fine going into the eighth. Ruiz said location was the problem.

"A lot of times you can leave the ball in the middle of the plate and they miss it," Ruiz said. "They have a lot of big hitters. Sometimes they don't miss it."

The Phils ended up winning two of three in the series. Bautista homered in all three games, raising his majors-best total to 27.

Lee was surprised his start unraveled so quickly."