October 29, 2009

Cliff Lee And Deacon Phillippe

In his complete game win over the Yankees last night, Philadelphia's Cliff Lee struck out 10 batters and did not walk anyone.

Only one other pitcher in baseball history has won a World Series game in which he had at least 10 strikeouts and no walks. It happened in the first very World Series game ever played.

Deacon Phillippe (9-6-3-0-10) of the Pittsburgh Pirates did it on October 1, 1903 against Cy Young and the Boston Americans. Pittsburgh led the best-of-9 series 3-1, but Boston won four consecutive games to clinch the first of the franchise's seven championships.

On October 5, 1949, Brooklyn's Don Newcombe struck out 11 Yankees and did not issue a walk, but he lost Game 1 to New York 1-0. Here's the list of the six times it has happened in post-season history. Lee has two of those six performances this month.

Joe Posnanski:
Cliff Lee pitched Wednesday like he had already seen the game and knew how it turned out. He pitched like he was on Tivo.

No comments: