Phillies' Lee comes to end of long season, at least as a starter

By Dave Sheinin

The Washington Post

November 03, 2009

PHILADELPHIA -- Game 5 of the World Series on Monday night almost certainly marked the final start of Cliff Lee's season, and the final act of one of the most impactful trade-deadline pick-ups in recent history. It is next-to-impossible to imagine the Philadelphia Phillies getting as far as they have this season without Lee, whom they acquired via trade in July.

But the Phillies' long postseason run has also pushed Lee's innings count into a stratosphere few pitchers have reached in recent years. And frequently, there are ramifications from that.

Lee's seven-inning-plus performance Monday night gave him 272 innings for the season, regular and postseason combined, the most in the majors since Arizona teammates Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson went for 305 and 291, respectively, in 2001. It is also almost 50 innings more than Lee's previous high (223 1/3 during his Cy Young Award season of 2008).

Lee could be back on the mound in the World Series, but he likely would be limited to a relief outing in a potential Game 7 on Thursday, which would fall on his normal bullpen side-session day.

Typically, teams monitor the innings counts of young pitchers closely to guard against overuse, since it frequently leads to problems in future seasons. Although Lee is 31, Manager Charlie Manuel acknowledged concern over Lee's workload this season factored that into his decision not to start him in Game 4 on short rest.

'That's one of the reasons,' Manuel said.

While most speculation at the trade deadline regarding the Phillies focused on Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Roy Halladay -- who was more highly regarded at the time -- they instead nabbed Lee from the Indians for four prospects. He went 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA for the Phillies in the regular season, and was 3-0 with an 0.54 ERA in four starts for them this postseason, entering Game 5.

Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino was hit on the right hand by an A.J. Burnett fastball in the first inning and appeared to be in pain the rest of the game, before being removed in the eighth. X-rays were negative.

'In a couple of days, it's probably going to be okay,' Manuel said. 'But he was having some pain in it.'

With center fielder Melky Cabrera suffering a strained hamstring in Game 4, the Yankees made a roster move, dropping Cabrera and adding reserve infielder Ramiro Pena, whose primarily role was likely to be pinch-running. By rule, Cabrera cannot return for the duration of the Series.

Brett Gardner started in place of Cabrera on Monday night.

Although Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain served up the game-tying homer to Philadelphia's Pedro Feliz in the eighth inning of Game 4, it could not obscure the fact Chamberlain seemed more dominant Sunday night than he has at any other point all season.

Chamberlain's fastball was consistently in the 96-97 mph range, and his breaking ball had impressive bite. Catcher Jorge Posada later said Chamberlain's stuff was 'electric.'

The outing has also reignited the debate, which raged all season in New York, over whether Chamberlain should be a starter or Mariano Rivera's heir as closer. The Yankees used him as a starter for most of the season, but shifted him to the bullpen -- citing his workload -- at the end of the season.

Over the course of the postseason, he has steadily risen from a seventh-inning role to the primarily eighth-inning bridge to Rivera, especially with top set-up man Phil Hughes struggling.

Yankees Manager Joe Girardi was noncommittal about Chamberlain's future, but Chamberlain acknowledged the offseason will be 'full of questions' about it.

Starting 'is something I've wanted to do for a long time,' Chamberlain said. 'It's the only thing I've done. . . . It's something that we're probably going to talk about in the offseason.'

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