Cliff Lee will take the mound on Sunday, when the Philadelphia Phillies close out a three-game series with the first-place Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. It will be Lee’s final chance to win a game at home before coming up on the one-year anniversary of his last win at the Phillies’ nine-year-old ballpark.
“I barely remember yesterday,” Lee said when he was asked if he could recall his last win at Citizens Bank Park.
It obviously didn’t come Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds.
Lee took a shutout into the seventh inning but left in the middle of the inning, down by two runs, and the Phillies eventually lost to the Reds, 5-4. The defeat snapped the Phils’ seven-game winning streak over the Reds, which dated to May 24, 2011.
It also extended Lee’s misery in South Philly. He hasn’t won a game at Citizens Bank Park since Sept. 5, 2011.
Lee is winless in his last 13 home starts and has just two wins overall in 22 starts this season.
“It’s definitely been a strange year,” Lee said. “But all I can do is focus on my routine, prepare for each start and go out there and expect to win every time I take the mound. And that hasn’t changed.”
Although Lee was aided by his offense in the sixth inning — a highlight-reel grab by third baseman Kevin Frandsen followed by a double play grounder helped him escape a bases-loaded, no-out jam unscathed — he didn’t get much help from his offense or the relievers who followed him.
The Phils scored one run with Lee on the mound, giving him a small margin for error that came back to bite the Phillies in the seventh, when he allowed three runs on three hits, a walk and a sacrifice fly.
Although the offense rallied after Lee left to help him avoid a loss, the two most veteran members of the bullpen couldn’t help the team avoid defeat. Antonio Bastardo and Jonathan Papelbon served up go-ahead home runs in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Papelbon’s came on the first pitch he threw.