Can Cliff Lee save the Phillies’ season?
The Phillies acquired Cliff Lee at the trade deadline this season to help bolster their starting pitching and help get the back to the World Series. But now that they’re back in the Fall Classic, the Phillies need one more thing from Lee: To save their season.
Lee will pitch Game 5 against the Yankees tonight in a do-or-die game for the Phillies, who trail 3-1 in the best of seven series. So far, Lee is 3-0 in the postseason and has only allowed two earned runs on 20 hits over 33.1 innings of work. He has also fanned 30 batters, has only walked three and has a sparklingly 0.54 ERA.
But even though he has been masterful so far, the problem is that this is the second time the Yankees will be facing Lee this week. Even though they lost, the Rockies fared a tad better against Lee in Game 4 of the NLDS than they did in Game 1. And Colorado doesn’t have near the offensive firepower as New York does.
If the Yankees are going to be crowned world champions tonight, the top of their order must come through, unlike in Game 1 of this series. Outside of Derek Jeter, who had three hits and scored a run, Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez combined to go 1-for-12 against Lee in their first outing. While A-Rod has been on fire since then, he looked lost in all four of his at bats against Lee in New York while striking out three times.
Time will tell if Lee can continue his dominance in the postseason, or if A.J. Burnett and the Yankees will put the final touches on their championship run.
Follow the Scores Report editors on Twitter @clevelandteams and @bullzeyedotcom.
I think you have a good point. This is the second time around for the Yankees to see Lee, the first time was openning night, nasty weather and everybody all geeked up. That was a week ago and they have settled down which could mean trouble for Lee…at least I hope it does.
On the other hand, I expect Burnett to settle down and avoid the early, big inning. This is where he gets hurt.
Also note that they can’t jam A-Rod inside for fear of hitting him. They messed up by hitting him 3 times.
No matter what happens tonight, the Phillys have a rough road ahead of them.