Lee Tosses Phils To Win In Opener | 
When Charlie Manuel picked Cliff Lee as his game one starter, there were a lot of skeptics out there. Why isn’t Cole Hamels starting? Hamels won the NLCS MVP and the World Series MVP last season, and he won every game one for the Phillies in the 2008 postseason. Cliff Lee has NO postseason experience. Well, it looks like Manuel proved all the naysayers wrong. Lee pitched fantastically in the first game of the five game series between the Phillies and the Colorado Rockies. Lee ended up pitching a complete game, only giving up one run, (which came in the 9th inning), and six hits, while striking out five batters and giving up no walks in a 5-1 Phillies victory. Lee looked in control the entire day. One of Lee’s five strikeouts came on the final batter of the game against Garrett Atkins, much to the crowd’s pleasure. Not only did Lee pitch great, but he pitched great under pressure. Even though Lee got five runs from the Phillies offense, he was not staked to an early lead.
The Phillies bats were silent through the first four innings, because the Rockies Ace, Ubaldo Jimenez was equally as impressive as Lee early on, as he was mowing down the Phillies batters, and it looked like it might be a nothing-nothing game for a while, but Raul Ibanez changed all that. After Jayson Werth walked to lead off the bottom of the fifth, Ibanez smoked a double to right-field, and because of Werth’s speed, he was able to score from first on the play to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. Carlos Ruiz also came up big later in the inning with an RBI single to plate Ibanez and give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. The Phils would then add three more runs in the sixth inning, which was more than enough for Cliff Lee, who at one point retired 16 Rockies batters in a row. The defending World Series Champions are off to a good start in the 2009 postseason. Cole Hamels will take the mound for the Phils on Thursday afternoon, and he and the Phillies offense will look to continue their momentum in game two of the NLDS.
Topics: Batters, Carlos Ruiz, Charlie Manuel, Colorado Rockies, Complete Game, First Game, Game One, Game Series, Jayson Werth, Naysayers, Nlcs Mvp, Phillies, Postseason Experience, Raul Ibanez, Sixth Inning, Skeptics, Thursday Afternoon, Ubaldo Jimenez, World Series Champions, World Series Mvp
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