Cliff Lee Making History with Jaw-Dropping Postseason Efforts

Entering the 2009 postseason, only four pitchers in playoff history had recorded double-digit strikeouts while issuing zero walks.

Cliff Lee has now done it in back-to-back outings.

In Game Three of the NLCS, Lee navigated eight innings of shutout baseball while posting 10 strikeouts and zero walks against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lee did it again on Wednesday night in Game One of the World Series, tossing a complete game six-hitter and recording 10 punch outs, with zero free passes, against the potent New York Yankees’ lineup.

The trick had only been turned two times in World Series history before Lee did it.

 

	Date	Series	Opponent	IP	SO/BB
Tom Seaver	10/6/1973	NLCS	CIN (L, 1-2)	8.1	13/0
Sterling Hitchcock	10/4/1998	NLDS	HOU (W. 6-1)	6	11/0
Don Newcombe	10/5/1949	WS*	NYY (L, 0-1)	8	11/0
Deacon Phillips	10/1/1903	WS*	BOS (W, 7-3)	9	10/0
Cliff Lee	10/18/2009	NLCS	LAD (W, 11-0)	8	10/0
Cliff Lee	10/28/2009	WS*	NYY (W, 6-1)	9	10/0

 

Interestingly enough, Phillips, Newcombe, and now Lee have all done it in the World Series opener.

Additionally, Lee set himself apart from the rest of the list because every other pitcher allowed at least one earned run in their impressive outing, while Lee hasn’t surrendered an earned run in either of his back-to-back gems.

That makes him the first pitcher in World Series history to strikeout 10, walk none, and allow zero earned runs.

Phillips was previously the only pitcher on that list to strike out 10, walk none, and win the game. Now Lee joins him in that exclusive club.

To put this in perspective, Phillips’ outing was the first World Series game ever. That means the feat, which happened 106 years ago, went unmatched for 605 World Series games until Lee did it on Wednesday.

Utterly amazing.

I have to say that watching Lee work last night was one of the most unique things I’ve seen in a long while.

The southpaw used a nasty knuckle-curve (or “spike curve,” as Tim McCarver dubbed it), along with a changeup that drops off the table and well-placed cut fastballs to stifle the Yankees.

He was pitching in one of the most pressure-packed situations, and yet he looked as if he was walking his dog in the park.

“To be honest, I really never have been nervous in the big leagues,” Lee said. “This is what I wanted to do my whole life.”

If only every pitcher had that sort of swagger in his first trip to the postseason.

One of the most amazing stats I found from last night’s game was that Lee only threw a first-pitch strike to 50 percent of the hitters he faced (16 out of 32), which is astonishing when you consider the type of dominance he shelled out on the Yankees.

Despite working from behind in the count half of the time, Lee still managed to retire hitters quickly and efficiently, only going to a three-ball count three times over the course of the game.

As if those dominant numbers weren’t convincing enough to cement Lee as having one of the top single-season playoff performances ever, he now has the lowest ERA of all-time for pitchers with at least three postseason starts.

 

	ERA
Cliff Lee	0.54
Harry Breechen	0.83
Claude Osteen	0.86
Babe Ruth	0.87
Sherry Smith	0.89

 

You can’t help but be absolutely floored by the way Lee has stepped into the role as hired ace for the Phillies, and fulfilled every last request of his new team, plus some more.

He dismantled a Dodgers team that led the senior circuit in batting average and on-base percentage during the regular season, then promptly annihilated a Yankees lineup that led the majors in both home runs and runs scored.

No amount of rain falling at the new Yankee Stadium could have dampened the night Lee accomplished, and his historic effort has set the tone early in this series to put the Yankees on notice that they have a formidable enemy in their opponents from Philadelphia.

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