Phillies Eaten by Grues, 10 - 6

It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

> what is a grue?

The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is relievers, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its fear of quality starters. No grue has ever been seen facing a starting pitcher, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tale.

> use bullpen

You were eaten by a grue. Play again? (y/n)

The Phillies welcomed Cliff Lee back tonight, and things looked promising for salvaging the final game a home series against the New York Mets. The Mets countered with Dillon Gee, and it looked like the Phillies had a good shot to win one tonight. It was not to be.

Despite pulling out to leads of 2 -1 and 4 - 2, the whole affair essentially ended when Kyle Kendrick entered the game in the seventh inning with that 4 - 2 lead to relieve a pitch-counted Cliff Lee. When Lee left, he had thrown 84 pitches, going 6 complete innings and with a quality line line of 5H, 2R, 6K, 1BB, and 0HR.

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the bullpen blew it. Kendrick promptly surrendered 4 runs before being pulled after Scott Hairston hit a double to drive in a run and put the Mets ahead, 6 - 4. Jose Contreras entered in relief of Kendrick, striking out Kirk the Dutchman and then imploding, thanks in part to Hunter Pence dropping a fly ball. That said, nobody could have caught the monster homer Ike Davis blasted off the facade later in the inning to put the game completely out of reach.

The Phillies scored runs in five innings, striking first in the second on three successive singles with two outs scoring one run. This palindromic affair was capped by Cliff Lee's RBI single that drove in Brian Schneider. Other goodness included Freddy Galvis picking up 6 total bases and driving in three runs with a single, a double, and a triple. All just wasted. Which reminds me...I plan on drinking heavily.

Here's the Fangraph of Grue:

Source: FanGraphs

I have lost track of the number of games the bullpen has blown, though the five blown saves listed at he Fangraphs link above tell the story. Grues do like the dark, and it appears to be pretty dark right now. What can men do against such reckless hate?

The takeaway hope here is that the Phillies have starting pitching. They have hitting. Maybe there's reason to hope still. Look to the east on the third day?