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Phillies' Lee looking forward to NLDS Game 1 'challenge'

The last time Cliff Lee sat in a seat like this one - the last time it all rode on him - he delivered.

The last time Cliff Lee sat in a seat like this one - the last time it all rode on him - he delivered.

The Phillies traded four prospects and put Lee on the bowsprit bow of the Good Ship Uncle Chuck; destination: World Series defense.

Lee went 5-0 with a 0.68 earned run average in his first five starts as a Phillie.

Yesterday, having been named the Game 1 starter in the National League Division Series, Lee sounded a lot like he did when he landed in Philadelphia from Cleveland in July.

"It's a challenge," Lee said yesterday. "You know, I like any challenge."

Today is more than a challenge. It will help define a career.

Lee was the odd man out of the rotation in the 2007 Indians' run to the American League Championship Series. He then won 22 games and the American League Cy Young award last season . . . for an Indians team that played for nothing. He went 7-4 after the trade this season for a Phillies team that expects to play for everything.

And he has the ball in the first step along that path.

"It's an honor," Lee said.

One well-deserved, said manager Charlie Manuel.

"I don't think you can win a Cy Young if you can't pitch in a big game," Manuel said. "I'm sure he's pitched in some big games somewhere along the line. And if he hasn't, he damned sure has earned the right to pitch in one."

That right comes ahead of the equity assumed Phillies ace Cole Hamels built last season, when he won the NLCS and World Series MVP awards. Hamels will start Game 2 tomorrow.

Manuel said he didn't want Hamels to start on 3 days' rest, although Hamels' last outing was short.

Manuel didn't say the obvious: Lee's performance this season, combined with his dominance in the AL last year, seems to give the Phils the better chance to win.

Hamels finished the season 4-8 with a 4.16 ERA in 12 starts. He occasionally was unhittable but often was unrecognizable.

Lee seemed to falter, too, as the innings piled up and the league came to know him. He was 2-4 with a 6.13 ERA in his last seven starts. His command appeared to leave him . . .

"Where did it go? What are you talking about?" asked Lee, who in fact, walked only four and struck out 35 in those seven games.

The opposition just hit .331 with seven homers off him. So . . . pitch selection?

"Usually, when he has some problems, it might be his pitch selection," Manuel said.

Not fatigue . . . right?

"No. I feel as strong as I've felt the whole year," said Lee, who logged a career-high 231 2/3 innings.

Besides, if there is any lack of energy, trust Lee to concentrate his adrenaline. He clearly understands this moment.

"There are cases where you can get too amped up and too excited, and it can become a bad thing," Lee said. "I feel like, for me, it can only help . . . You can feel the energy in the ballpark. There's no way around it. You've just got to channel that into positives."

If there's anything Hamels knows about, it's channeling. Lee, 31, allowed that he would ask the spiritual lefty how he handled the postseason pressure of starting Game 1, as Hamels did three times last year, at the age of 24.

"I will ask him some stuff, just as far as his mindset and what he was thinking going into the game," Lee said. "I will pick his brain."

He needs to pick carefully. Remember, Hamels is the guy who explained his control problems in Game 2 of the 2007 NLDS against these Rockies to excess sweat caused by wearing a long-sleeved undershirt.

A removable long-sleeved undershirt.

That incident, and that explanation, only served to more ornately frame what Hamels did last year: Five starts, five team wins, a 4-0 personal record, an average of seven innings per start, seven runs allowed.

But that incredible postseason performance didn't keep Manuel from calling Lee, not Hamels, on Monday's off day and saying, "You're pitching Wednesday."

It's lately that matters.

"I don't have to tell you how much I think of Cole Hamels," Manuel said. "Cole Hamels can pitch any game he ever wants to for me."

Except today's.