PHILADELPHIA – Perhaps the Phillies will find a way to overcome their flaws and everything else that happened to them on Thursday.

But it was difficult to see that path, even following a five-run ninth-inning rally in Thursday night’s 8-7 loss to Arizona at Citizens Bank Park.

The D-backs are the worst team in the National League. They were the worst team in baseball, until they swept the Phillies last week in a three-game series at Chase Field. Arizona’s victory on Thursday dropped the Phillies (63-64) below .500 for the first time since Aug. 1, and 5 1/2 games behind the Braves in the National League East with 35 games left to play.

The Phillies are 4-11 since their eight-game winning streak.

They insist they can save their season.

“There’s still a lot of meat left on the bone,” first baseman Brad Miller said. “For me, it starts in the cage. It starts in figuring some [stuff] out and being a lot more competitive. I just think if we have the desire we’ll find a way.”

Things will be more difficult the rest of the way. The Phillies learned before the game that Rhys Hoskins is lost for the season. He will have surgery as early as next week to repair a tear in his lower abdomen. It is a major blow as his bat is irreplaceable.

Hoskins finished the season batting .247 with 27 home runs, 71 RBIs and an .864 OPS. Miller started at first base on Thursday, although manager Joe Girardi said they are considering how they might handle the position for the remainder of the season. Miller, who went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, is batting .140 with a .568 OPS this month and .151 with a .589 OPS since May 24.

“Quite frankly I’ve underperformed,” Miller said. “Rhys being out is a huge loss for us if I keep playing like this. If I step up and perform well, I think we can soften the blow a little bit. But, yeah, I’ve been terrible. So I need to figure it out and help us down the stretch.”

The team also learned before the game that right-hander Zach Eflin could not start, but only after it activated him from the 10-day injured list and designated right-hander Chase Anderson for assignment. Eflin had been sidelined since last month because of tendinitis in his right knee. It was a slow recovery, and Eflin always felt something in his knee during his rehab. He thought he could work through it. Then, hours before the game, the knee flared up and he got scratched.

Left-hander Matt Moore started in his place. Moore was expected to follow Eflin anyway because Eflin was supposed to be limited to 50 pitches. He allowed four runs in four innings.

“I didn’t really notice anything in the air,” said Moore about the mood in the clubhouse before the game. “Obviously we all knew what was going on with Rhys. Personally, seeing what he’s been going through the past couple months and the effort he put in, especially the last couple days, makes me want to go out there and play harder. It makes me want to go out there and do something better. It makes me want to go out there and pull my weight. Because I know that Rhys is putting in that much. I know that he was playing on one leg and he still was producing for us. So that kind of stuff, that fires me up. That’s a good teammate right there, and it makes me want to be better.”

Moore will get his chances. He is expected to start in Eflin’s place. Nobody knows when Eflin might return.

But regardless of whomever is at first base and whomever is on the mound, the Phillies need to start winning games. It needs to start Friday night.

“It’s just really frustrating,” Girardi said. “We’ve found different ways to lose games, but as you see, there’s no quit in this team. We’re going to fight and fight and fight. Obviously, we need to start winning some games. I don’t think that’s any secret, but it’s frustrating what we’ve gone through after we played so well there and put ourselves in a pretty good position. We’ve kind of dug ourselves a hole. We’re going to keep fighting and you never know what can happen.”