Lee breaks spell after 13 with win

Lee from last year at the ALS Festival at CBP

Cliff Lee has a win. It took almost half a season to get it, but it's a win. The Phillies exploded like a Fouth of July firecracker in New York yesterday and won by a score of 9-2. That is great news and maybe it's a sign that the Phillies have seen enough of the dark caverns of last place in the NL East, and something is about to change.

Here is the numbers on Lee's first 13 starts for the Phillies:

Rk	Gtm	Date	Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	ERA
1	2	Apr 7	PHI	@	PIT	L,1-2	GS-6		6.0	1.50
2	7	Apr 13	PHI		NYM	L,2-5	GS-7	L(0-1)	7.0	3.46
3	12	Apr 18	PHI	@	SFG	L,0-1	GS-10		10.0	1.96
May			Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	ERA
4	32	May 9	PHI		NYM	L,6-10	GS-6		6.0	2.17
5	37	May 15	PHI		HOU	W,4-3	GS-8		8.0	1.95
6	42	May 20	PHI		BOS	L,1-5	GS-7	L(0-2)	7.0	2.66
7	47	May 25	PHI	@	STL	W,5-3	GS-7		7.0	2.82
8	52	May 30	PHI	@	NYM	W,10-6	GS-6		6.0	3.00
June			Tm		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	ERA
9	57	Jun 5	PHI		LAD	L,1-2	GS-8	L(0-3)	7.2	2.92
10	62	Jun 10	PHI	@	BAL	L,4-5	GS-6		6.0	3.18
11	67	Jun 16	PHI	@	TOR	L,5-6	GS-8		7.0	3.48
12	74	Jun 24(2)	PHI		TBR	L,3-7	GS-7	L(0-4)	7.0	3.72
13	79	Jun 29	PHI	@	MIA	L,2-6	GS-5	L(0-5)	4.2	4.13
			PHI						89.1	4.13

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/5/2012.

Amazingly, Lee only had 5 losses in the drought, that shows you what a great pitcher he is. A combination of the Phillies not scoring and games that he did do to well were the ingredients of this long winningless drought that Lee went through.

The Phillies scored a average of 3.21 runs per game for all of Lee's starts in the 13 game winless streak. That included one game that was a 10 run scoring total by the Phillies, against the Mets on May 30th, but it was a close game and Lee was pulled before the Phillies scored the bulk of the runs in the 9th inning to go on and win that game but Lee didn't get credit for the win.

Lee rallied late in the year last year to collect a lot of wins in his 17-8 finish. Lee picked up 8 wins from July 30th till the end of the 2011 regular season last year. There were 5 starts in August of 2011 in which Lee won every start. So, it's not to late for Lee or the Phillies as a team to turn this around. It would be an uphill battle but this team is full of players with unlimited potential. The Phils are now 12 games back and solidly in last place on July 5th, can they make a run for this division still?