Last night, Roy Halladay tossed a complete where he allowed only two runs. Tonight, his fellow ace Cliff Lee one-upped him. Lee threw a complete game, 3-hit shutout in which he struck out 12 Nationals. He faced only three batters above the minimum and at one point struck out five straight including the Nats' 2-3-4 hitters (Rick Ankiel, Jayson Werth, Adam LaRoche). In a fitting clash of guys with $100 million contracts, Lee got Werth (0-4 2Ks) to ground out to end the game.
In his previous start against the Braves, Lee didn't even make it out of the fourth inning, allowing six runs on 10 hits. Tonight, he had no such troubles with a masterful performance over the Nationals, who become one of what is likely to be many victims of the Phillies death star of starting pitching.
This marks the first time since May of 1999 that the Phillies have had two starting pitchers throw back to back complete games.
Lee's counterpart, Jordan Zimmerman, did a pretty good job himself frustrating hitters tonight. In fact, he took a no hitter into the sixth, but Carlos Ruiz's homer to deep left broke up the no-no. The Nationals inept fielding would provide the rest of the runs as they committed two errors for the second straight game, which lead to three more unearned Phillies runs.
Next up the Phillies return home for a series against the second place Florida Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.