Cliff Lee and Chase Utley In the Zone
by Memphis Bengal on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 05:51am
Two home runs from Utley to stake Philly to a 2-0 lead as they cruise to a 6-1 win. And that wasn’t remotely the story.
The lead from game one was Cliff Lee. With Cliff Lee REALLY in the zone. And turning in what is a historically noteworthy series of pitching performances throughout the playoffs, capped by the complete game masterpiece against a very good offensive Yankees team in game one of the World Series last night. 10 Ks. 0 walks. Absolute control of the proceedings from start to finish.
Phil Sheridan in the Philly Inquirer, marveling at Lee’s latest gem:
The coolest man in baseball delivered precisely the big-game performance the Phillies had to have in order to beat Yankees ace CC Sabathia. The two lefthanders were teammates in Cleveland, Cy Young Award winners who were traded away before reaching free agency. They are good friends. On Opening Day, they faced each other in the very first game at this ballpark. Afterward, Lee went to Sabathia’s house for a postgame meal. He ate Sabathia’s dinner again last night. Lee struck out Jeter and Teixeira in the first inning. He struck out Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui in the second. He not only struck out the side in the fourth, but he got the very heart of the order – Teixeira, Rodriguez, Jorge Posada – and he got them all swinging. Lee struck out Rodriguez three times – as many times as he struck out in the entire AL Championship Series. And Lee was pitching, for most of the game, with little margin for error. One mistake, one good swing, could have given the Yankees the lead or tied the game. Until the ninth inning, when the Phillies’ lead had ballooned to 6-0, the Yankees never had two baserunners in the same inning. Their prodigious offense was utterly smothered. Before Jeter scored on Jimmy Rollins’ throwing error in the ninth, Lee had pitched 16 consecutive scoreless innings.
About the only good thing for NY is that it should be fairly easy to put this one behind them. Sometimes you just get beat. If Pedro tosses a gem at them tonight, then alarm can go ahead and set in…