BOX SCORE
One pitch.
Thats all Cliff Lee needed for his seventh shutout of the season and seventh complete game. He was in a pretty good position to do it, too. Ahead in the count 0-2 with two outs in the ninth inning, Lee was ready to exchange handshakes and high-fives with his teammates until the ball Jose Lopez hit sailed over the leftfield fence.
Just like that the 1-0 victory was erased and extra innings were in order.
Manager Charlie Manuel brought in Ryan Howard to play in the 10th inning and after Michael Martinez led off the inning with a walk, Howard laced a double to left-center to end it with a 2-1 win for the Phillies.
Still, that one pitch
It was supposed to be a backdoor cutter, but I left it out over the plate and he hit a home run, Lee said. 0-2, two outs in the ninth with nobody on, I mean it was right where I needed to be and I gave up a home run.
MLB
Nevertheless, the Phillies pushed their record to 97-51 and could clinch their fifth straight NL East crown as early as Friday night. With 14 games remaining in the season, the Phillies have an 11-game lead over the Braves in the NL East and a magic number of two.
If the Phillies beat the Cardinals on Friday night and the Braves lose in New York, the NL East race is over.
Still, after Thursdays nightcap (the Phils recorded a 3-1 win in the DH matinee) the talk was about Lees one bad pitch as opposed to the 116 good ones he made. Lee came one pitch away from his seventh shutout of the season, which would have been the most in the big leagues since Tim Belcher had eight in 1989 for the Dodgers. No Phillies pitcher has gotten seven shutouts in a season since Steve Carlton had eight in 1972.
Instead, Lee will take solace in the fact that the Phillies won their third game in a row. Thats what its all about anyway. Besides, Lees final line is still quite impressive with the five hits, zero walks and 12 strikeouts.
It was the ninth double-digit strikeout game of the season for Lee.
We won, thats what its all about. As long as we win, Lee said. In a situation like that Id prefer to finish it up right there and be done with it, but give Lopez some credit. He made a good swing on a bad pitch and tied the game up.
It could have been worse. Much worse. Playing the second game of the day with 14 more left in the season over 13 days, the Phillies could not afford a lengthy extra-inning game. According to Manuel, he had relievers Michael Schwimer for a couple of innings and perhaps David Herndon for a couple more.
We definitely didnt want to go 13 or 14 innings. Not at all, Manuel said. We had Schwimer for another inning and then Herndon for two. Then, we really would have had trouble.
In other words, its a good thing Howard came through when he did.
He was really patient and he stayed on it and got the pitch he wanted, Manuel said of Howards walk-off piece.
Howard had been riding an 0-or-15 slump until the double gave the Phillies their eighth walk-off win of the season. After Martinez walked, Howard worked Marlins reliever Burke Bradenhop to a 3-1 count before serving one out into the gap in left-center.
It looked like everything he was throwing was kind of running away, so I just looked for something to hit to left field, Howard said. I got it to a 3-1 count and he threw me a fastball down the middle.
Just like that.
Still, one pitch. One more stinkin pitch
Obviously its frustrating, theres no doubt about it. But what is done is done, Lee said. You just have to recover and get the next guy out. You never know whats going to happenthats why you play the game until the end.
On Thursday, the Phillies did just thattwice.
E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com.