MLB

Phillies tee off on Gee while Lee shuts down Mets

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WITH EE’S: Dillon Gee (left) was pounded for 10 hits and seven runs in three innings and Phillies counterpart Cliff Lee (right) cruised in the Mets’ 8-3 loss last night in Philadelphia. (Getty Images; AP)

PHILADELPHIA — They can’t all be masterpieces, but Dillon Gee wasn’t even close to respectable last night.

For the first time this year, the Mets watched a starting pitcher completely implode, bringing with it an end to a winning streak and a reminder about the fragility of this rotation.

“Terrible night, but you’ve got to move past it,” Gee said after the Mets snapped a three-game winning streak with an 8-3 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

It was bloody. Gee, in his shortest career start, surrendered solo homers to Ryan Howard, Michael Young and John Mayberry Jr., in the third inning and was mercifully removed after that frame, having allowed seven earned runs on 10 hits.

Jeremy Hefner now gets the call to stabilize the staff, after abbreviated starts by Aaron Laffey on Sunday and Gee have taxed the Mets bullpen. Hefner will face Kyle Kendrick tonight and try to give the Mets their third straight winning series to begin the season. Hefner shined in his start against the Marlins on Friday, when he allowed one run over six innings.

Manager Terry Collins could only shrug off Gee’s performance.

“A lot of balls were up in the zone,” Collins said. “After he would give up a hit they would show a replay of it on the scoreboard and he would miss his target by two feet.”

Needing five innings from his bullpen, Collins got creative and double-switched Lucas Duda out of the game in the fourth, allowing Greg Burke to pitch two innings without coming to bat.

Burke, Scott Rice, LaTroy Hawkins and Brandon Lyon combined to allow one run on one hit over five innings, but by then it was too late.

Cliff Lee (2-0) had the benefit of a seven-run lead after three innings and threw strikes. John Buck smashed a two-run homer in the fourth and Jordany Valdespin’s triple an inning later led to another run, but that was it for the offense a night after the Mets torched Roy Halladay for seven runs. Lee lasted 8 2/3 innings and allowed eight hits with six strikeouts and no walks.

Mets starting pitchers ranked second in the major leagues with a 1.87 ERA entering the day, but Gee (0-2) began crumbling after retiring the first four batters he faced and never recovered. His night completely disintegrated in the third, when he allowed the three homers.

“I didn’t feel all that terrible — just living in the wrong part of the strike zone,” Gee said.

Mayberry’s two-run double in the second accounted for the Phillies’ first scoring before Lee slapped an RBI single and Jimmy Rollins’ run-scoring double made it 4-0. Young and Dominic Brown had singled in succession earlier in the inning to start the rally.

Howard and Young homered consecutively to begin the third, and Mayberry’s solo blast later in the inning extended the lead to 7-0.

In his first start of the season, Gee allowed one earned run on three hits over 6 1/3 innings in a loss to the Padres and later indicated he wasn’t happy with his performance. But Collins said it’s too early to be worried.

“Right now, because I saw him throw the ball so well in Florida, I’m not that concerned at the moment,” Collins said.

Gee’s previous shortest start was the 3 2/3 innings he pitched against the Phillies here on Aug. 22, 2011.

“When we got in good counts we just left it up a little bit or didn’t get the pitch in enough,” Buck said. “The stuff was good. It was always that one pitch.”