Lee steals show as Phillies win 7th straight
While quick-working Cliff Lee made sure the spectators jammed into Citizens Bank Park on Thursday afternoon could beat the rush-hour traffic and take full advantage of happy hours everywhere, the Phillies finished their longest homestand of the season, using it to coalesce into the dominant team they're expected to be.
While quick-working Cliff Lee made sure the spectators jammed into Citizens Bank Park on Thursday afternoon could beat the rush-hour traffic and take full advantage of happy hours everywhere, the Phillies finished their longest homestand of the season, using it to coalesce into the dominant team they're expected to be.
Pitching as if he was concerned that the club's charter flight to Seattle might leave without him, Lee was at his very best in a 3-0 win over Florida that extended the Phillies' winning streak to seven games and completed the 11-game home portion of the schedule at 9-2.
Lee allowed two singles as he went the distance for the shutout, the seventh of his career. In three starts during the homestand, Lee gave up one run in 24 innings for a 0.38 earned run average. He has won his last five starts in South Philly with a 1.13 ERA. He also had as many hits as the fading Marlins, including a double off the scoreboard in right-center that broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning.
"I don't know how much more he had to do," manager Charlie Manuel said. "It was his game. He was in control the whole time. He did a super job."
Lee wasn't the only Phillie to get back on the rail during the homestand after veering slightly from the tracks. Chase Utley, who sat out Thursday rather than risk a flare-up in his right knee by playing four games in fewer than 48 hours, found his stroke. Ryan Howard, who launched his 15th homer to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the fifth, has a six-game hitting streak and had 11 RBIs during the homestand. Shane Victorino has scored 15 runs in June.
It was during the homestand when the impact of the Phillies' full lineup, with everyone finally healthy, kicked in. They scored 53 runs, including 44 in the last seven games, alleviating some concern that they had lost the ability to pound the ball.
"I feel like we've done pretty good from the start," said Lee, who lowered his ERA to 3.12. "You're going to have the offense go through a funk, and the same with the pitching, but we've got enough talent, and we're deep enough to battle through those things. When everything's working right, we have winning streaks like this. This team is talented. When you have guys like Utley hurt and Victorino hurt and [Brad] Lidge hurt, usually that hurts pretty bad, but it goes to show the depth and the talent we've got from top to bottom."
As manager, Manuel is paid to worry, and he was able to sift through the Phillies' recent success and find something to concern him. He wants the offense to give his array of fine pitchers an early cushion, for crying out loud.
"The only thing I'm concerned about now is I'd like to see us get a couple runs early and give them a little breathing room where they can pitch like they can," he said. "I look for our pitching to be very consistent the rest of the way, and we still got a long ways to go. . . . If we score some runs and play the way we can, we have a chance to have a very special season. When we signed on, it was to go to the World Series and win.
"Right now we're starting to really blossom into the team we want to be, but we've got to keep working."
Lee held the Marlins hitless until Mike Stanton singled with two outs in the fifth inning. No Marlin reached third base, and Lee faced the minimum three batters in seven of the nine innings.
The lefthander may be in the early part of the kind of dominating stretch that has characterized much of his career. His three recent starts followed a rocky outing at Washington.
Asked what he's doing differently, Lee, as usual, boiled his answer down to the basics.
"Mixing speeds better and staying out of the heart of the plate better," he said. "That's really the difference between pitching good and pitching bad."
Manuel was more expansive about Lee.
"Basically, his command is better, and when he's getting his breaking ball over, it's a good pitch for him," he said. "You see him sometimes when he's off. His ball is up and kind of in the middle of the plate, and that's when he gets hurt. But today his command was good."