Cliff Lee makes good
28 October 2009 11:31 pm
Tonight featured an adjectivally challenging game pitched by Cliff Lee, providing his Phillies with a 1-0 lead in the best of seven series. Words like masterful, dominating, domineering, totally badass, etc, etc all feel somewhat inadequate in describing what we saw. Lee threw a complete game and earned no runs, the only Yankee crossing the plate on a throwing error by Jimmy Rollins in the ninth with one out remaining.
Lee’s game score for the evening was 89, which ties him for sixth all time in World Series games pitched with Don Drysdale (1963) and Hod Eller (1919). The best World Series game ever pitched by game score? It surprised me:
| Dude | Team | Date | Game Score | IP | ER | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babe Ruth | BOS | 1916-10-09 | 97 | 14 | 1 | 4 |
| Don Larsen | NYY | 1956-10-08 | 94 | 9 | 0 | 7 |
| Ed Walsh | CHW | 1906-10-11 | 94 | 9 | 0 | 12 |
| Bob Gibson | STL | 1968-10-02 | 93 | 9 | 0 | 17 |
| Randy Johnson | ARI | 2001-10-28 | 91 | 9 | 0 | 11 |
| Monte Pearson | NYY | 1939-10-05 | 90 | 9 | 0 | 8 |
| George Earnshaw | PHA | 1931-10-06 | 90 | 9 | 0 | 8 |
| Bill Dinneen | BOS | 1903-10-02 | 90 | 9 | 0 | 11 |
| Don Drysdale | LAD | 1963-10-05 | 89 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Hod Eller | CIN | 1919-10-06 | 89 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Cliff Lee | PHI | 2009-10-28 | 89 | 9 | 0 | 10 |
In Babe Ruth’s game two win in 1916, he out-pitched Brooklyn’s Sherry Smith who himself went 13.1 innings, allowing two runs and striking out two for a game score of 82. Really nothing to sneeze at.
Take away Rollins’s mistake in the ninth and Lee goes to 91, putting him in some pretty elite company. The Phillies could truly ask for nothing more than what they got from game one- if P-E-D-R-O and Hamels are able to even come close to Lee, we could well see a sweep.
Speaking of which, PEDRO. In Yankee Stadium. Like old times. Sort of. ¶
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