Cliff Lee continues mastery as Phils blank Reds again
CINCINNATI - Twenty-eight days, Charlie Manuel said. We've got 28 days to figure it all out. And it's true. Even after last night's 3-0 win over the Reds, which improved the Phillies' best-in-the-majors record to 86-46 and kept their NL East lead at 7 1/2 games over Atlanta, Manuel and his team still had 30 regular-season games left to play.
CINCINNATI - Twenty-eight days, Charlie Manuel said. We've got 28 days to figure it all out. And it's true.
Even after last night's 3-0 win over the Reds, which improved the Phillies' best-in-the-majors record to 86-46 and kept their NL East lead at 7 1/2 games over Atlanta, Manuel and his team still had 30 regular-season games left to play.
But on a night like last night, as Cliff Lee sizzled in a half-empty ballpark that less than a year ago was burning with postseason excitement, it was hard not to let your mind wander elsewhere.
Like, say, Oct. 1. That's when the Phillies, barring a huge collapse, will open up the postseason at Citizens Bank Park against Arizona, unless the Diamondbacks can't hang on to their lead over San Francisco in the National League West.
Who will take the mound that day is far less clear. The smart money is on Roy Halladay, because as Manuel has said time and again, he's the ace, the horse, the leader of the best rotation in baseball. And it would be a hard choice to argue. All Halladay did in last year's NL Division Series opener was pitch a no-hitter. This year, he is a strong candidate to repeat as the NL Cy Young Award winner.
But as you watched Lee turn in his latest display of dominance, it was hard not to wonder. It was the rare night where even a splendid final line of 8 2/3 scoreless innings, seven strikeouts and eight baserunners did not do him justice. Three of those baserunners reached with two outs in the ninth inning to ruin Lee's shot at recording his major league-leading sixth shutout of the season. After Lee allowed a double to Joey Votto and a walk to Jay Bruce and then hit Miguel Cairo with his 117th pitch of the night, Manuel decided to call on Ryan Madson for his 25th save.
"It's rare to pitch 8 2/3 innings and not allow a run and not feel good about it when it's over," Lee said.
But Lee is a rare bird, even when compared with the two other Cy Young candidates in the rotation. Since June 1, he has held an opponent scoreless in eight of 15 starts, going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA. Four of those games have come in his last five starts, a stretch in which he has allowed just two earned runs, three extra-base hits and eight walks while striking out 39 in 39 2/3 innings (the other 14 baserunners reached via single).
In fact, Lee leads the majors with 10 scoreless appearances of seven innings or more, including his latest effort that improves record to 15-7 while lowering his ERA to 2.59. He has more scoreless outings than Halladay (four) and Cole Hamels (three) combined.
That jibes with his track record in the postseason, where he has held an opponent to one or zero earned runs over at least seven innings in seven of his 10 career starts. He hasn't thrown a no-hitter like Halladay, but twice he has held an opponent to three base-runners with at least 10 strikeouts.
Lee shrugs off his recent success, which includes 2 months, June and August, in which he compiled a 5-0 record and allowed a total of three runs.
"I hope I have a good September and October, too," Lee said.
With Hamels, Halladay and Lee all among the most dominant starters in the NL this season, lining them up for next month could be a chore.
Not that Manuel minds.
"That's always a good problem to have," he said.
