Cliff Lee certainly didn’t pitch like the postseason rookie he is. Lee threw six hits against the Colorado Rockies as the Phillies won Game 1 of the playoff series 5-1. Lee, who won the American League Cy Young Award last year, struck out 5 batters and walked none. At one point he retired 16 batters in a row.
Just 2 years ago, Cliff Lee made it to the American League Championship Series with the Cleveland Indians. He didn’t make the postseason roster because he had a really bad regular season and actually got demoted to the minors. But last year he went 22-3 and was traded to Philadelphia on July 29 when the Indians decided to cut costs. Turns out the trade helped propel the Phillies to the playoffs and appears to have given them a dominant pitcher in the postseason as well.
Raul Ibanez, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth had RBIs.
Colorado pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez, who won 15 games during the regular season, didn’t look bad until the fourth inning. He mixed some off-speed pitches with his fastball and kept the Phillies off balance the first time in the lineup. However, he was taken out with no outs in the sixth inning after giving up nine hits and five runs.
The Phillies come into this postseason with a huge crowd behind them. This season they set a franchise attendance record, and 46,452 wild and crazy fans showed up for the first game of the playoffs. This was the largest crowd in Citizens Bank Park history.
