Jerad Eickhoff threw another fractured gem, and the Phillies offense took their time but eventually made this one a laugher.
A team's season sprouts, branches, and blooms much like a rose bush. In its youth, the plant is smooth, deep green but mottled with purple, and thin but lithe. It is potential manifest. We anticipate the flowers when small buds begin to bulge through the shoots. They feast on the solar victuals dispensed through the leaves and, finally, spread their petals so that we can enjoy their beauty. But as the flowers bloom so do the thorns. The branches stiffen, as if they suspect the hand that feeds will also be the hand that bleeds it.