By Thom Henninger
Philadelphia starter Cliff Lee just keeps rolling along, making his case as the best trade-deadline acquisition of 2009. On Wednesday, the 6-foot-3 lefty pitched a two-hitter and tied a career high with 11 strikeouts in a complete-game, 8-1 victory over Arizona. He’s now allowed just seven earned runs in seven second-half starts, and he’s got seven wins, a 1.09 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP to show for it.
Although Lee is just 11-9 on the season, a solid case can be made that he has been among the most dependable major league starters for the bulk of the 2009 campaign. That seemed like an unlikely scenario after Texas roughed up Lee for 10 hits and seven runs on Opening Day, and five days later, Toronto scored four runs in the first three frames off the former Cleveland ace. In his first two outings of the season, he had given up 11 earned runs in 10 innings, and hitters were batting .370 against him.
Four months later, Lee has a 2.72 ERA and a major league-leading 22 quality starts. They come in a stretch of 24 outings since the Rangers and Blue Jays greeted him rudely in the opening week. One might expect Lee to be among the major league leaders in wins, but the runs have rarely come in bunches for him.
In Lee’s 22 starts for Cleveland before he was dealt, the Indians were blanked or held to a single run while he was on the mound nine times. He turned in quality starts in six of those games, but was 0-5 with a no decision. After losing a pair of quality starts to close out the first half, he was 4-9 despite a respectable 3.47 ERA that ranked 13th among the American League’s ERA qualifiers. Among the 23 AL qualifiers with ERAs lower than 4.00 at the break, only Lee had fewer than six wins.
Lee has taken matters into his own hands since the All-Star break. He won his first three second-half starts for the hapless Indians, then showed why the Phillies made the right move in dealing four prospects for him.
In four outings for the Phils, Lee has worked two complete-game victories and won his other two starts as well. The first complete game was in his National League debut on July 31, when the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner flashed no-hit stuff, held the Giants hitless into the sixth inning, and limited them to four hits and two walks in a 5-1 victory.
After going the distance again on Wednesday, Lee is 4-0 with an 0.82 ERA for the Phillies. He’s pitched 33 innings, allowed just 18 hits and six walks, and struck out 34. The unfortunate thing is, by changing leagues at the trade deadline, he’s unlikely to claim Cy Young honors in either one.
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Excellent overview of Lee, Thom. The headline doesn’t seem to fit the article, however, as you do not discuss the effect Lee has had on the Phillies. Assuming that it means “repeat as World Champions”, I find it very difficult to imagine that they can do so with Brad Lidge as their closer.
The headline was a play on the use of Fightin’ Phillies as the team nickname years ago, as much as anything else. The Phillies are 11-7 since the front office added Lee, and he has four of those wins without suffering a loss. The effect Lee has on the Phillies becomes more significant when teams use four-man rotations in the playoffs. He certainly boosts his team’s chances of advancing in the postseason.
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