CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee hardly got rocked Wednesday night, but the Indians delivered enough body blows to defeat him, 6-0, at Progressive Field. Lee made his first career start against the franchise for which he pitched from 2002 until 2009. He had not taken the mound at Progressive Field since July 16, 2009. Later that month,...
View full sizeThe Phillies' Cliff Lee gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits in six innings against the Tribe on Wednesday. He walked two and struck out four. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee hardly got rocked Wednesday night, but the Indians delivered enough body blows to defeat him, 6-0, at Progressive Field.
Lee made his first career start against the franchise for which he pitched from 2002 until 2009. He had not taken the mound at Progressive Field since July 16, 2009. Later that month, he was traded to Philadelphia for the first of his two stints with the Phillies.
Lee gave up five runs (four earned) on nine hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out four. The Indians ended his streak of quality starts on the road at 11.
Against colder opponents, Lee's repertoire might have resulted in a victory. But he ran into a club that is locked in. In the Indians' previous three games, they went 3-0 and scored 33 runs on 45 hits. In the series opener Tuesday, the Tribe pounded Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay and hit seven homers en route to a 14-2 victory.
Lee did not give up a homer, but he failed to limit the damage from smaller stuff.
"They hit some decent pitches and got some breaks," Lee said. "That's what happens whenever you're swinging the bat well as a team and putting balls in play, squaring balls up. You've got to give them credit."
Lee (2-2, 3.46 ERA) breezed through the first inning and got the first out of the second before walking Carlos Santana. No shame in walking Santana, even for a pitcher who entered with five walks in 35 innings. Santana ended April ranked No. 1 in the majors with a .476 on-base percentage.
Ryan Raburn punched a single to right-center, Santana advancing to third. No shame in giving up a hit to Raburn, either. Raburn had hits in eight of his previous nine at-bats and was just getting started.
Lee made a good first pitch to Mike Aviles, who popped it to left. Domonic Brown's one-hop throw handcuffed catcher Carlos Ruiz, enabling Santana to slide in safely for the game's first run.
The Indians scored three in the third, using three infield hits to help do so. Michael Brantley reached on a one-out drag bunt and Jason Kipnis walked. Lee made a bad first pitch to Asdrubal Cabrera -- a cutter that didn't cut enough -- and Cabrera doubled into the left-field corner to drive in two.
Mark Reynolds singled to shortstop, pushing Cabrera to third. With two outs, Raburn hit a slow grounder to third for an RBI single.
"What I regret is walking a couple of guys in the game, and they both scored," Lee said.
The Indians built a 5-0 cushion with an unearned run in the fifth. Reynolds was safe on shortstop Jimmy Rollins' error and scored on Raburn's double to right-center.
Raburn finished 4-for-5 and is 12 for his past 14.
"Raburn, I mean . . . he's swinging the bat well," said Lee, who threw 72 of 103 pitches for strikes.
That the Phillies were shut out with Lee on the mound is no shock. In his first five starts, they had scored 15 runs while he was in the game. Since the beginning of 2012, Lee is one of the least-supported starters in majors.
Lee entered Wednesday with the third-lowest ERA among active starters since 2008, minimum 600 innings, (2.90).
Cleveland was the only major-league team Lee had not faced.
Lee slipped to 40-26 in 88 games (86 starts) at Progressive Field.