Cliff Shines in D.C. Duel

Bouncing
back seems to be a reoccurring theme with regard to the
Phillies pitchers.  Cole Hamels pulled it off beautifully, and
Joe Blanton tried.

This time it
was Cliff Lee‘s turn for redemption, and it was quite a
performance.  Lee pitched a complete game shutout against the Washington
Nationals on the heels of a complete game performance by Roy
Halladay the night before. 

It was the
first time that two Phillies pitchers had gone back-to-back with complete games
since Paul Byrd and Curt Schilling did it in May of 1999.  This makes you
wonder what Roy Oswalt has in store for the Florida Marlins. 

Thursday
night in the nation’s capitol was a pitcher’s duel.  Cliff wasn’t the only
pitcher that was having a great night on the mound.  The Nationals Jordan
Zimmermann retired the first 15 batters he faced in order until Carlos
Ruiz greeted him rudely with a leadoff homer in the top of the sixth.
 Zimmermann was impressive, and Cliff took notice. 

“I had
to hit off that guy and he might have had the best fastball I had ever seen.
That guy looked good to me. He has some serious zip on it,” Lee said.
“It said 94-95, but it looked harder than that to me and it showed. He
shut our lineup down for half the game and that’s hard to do.”

In the end
it was Lee.  12 Strikeouts, and a 4-0 victory that sealed the series for
the Phillies.  

The Phillies
are home Friday with Roy Oswalt taking the mound against Javier Vazquez.

Side
Notes - 

The
Bullpen - I
wonder if they’re gonna bother coming tomorrow?

Chase
Utley - He RAN
on Thursday.  With a little discomfort, but the Philadelphia Daily News is
reporting that Utley could rejoin the team as early as next month.

The Font - Not sure what happened with
the font on this entry.  Can’t seem to fix it.  Oh well…. 

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Tags: Carlos Ruiz, Cliff Lee, Jordan Zimmermann, Nationals, Phillies, Roy Halladay, Werth