Cliff Lee throws third shutout as Philadelphia Phillies beat Boston Red Sox 5-0 – MLB Update
The Philadelphia Phillies humiliated the Boston Red Sox 5-0 on Tuesday, June 28 at the Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Red Sox were restricted to a shut-out courtesy some magnificent Cliff Lee pitching who now has recorded three consecutive shut-outs and is in one of the best streaks of his career. Lee pitched for the entire nine innings and allowed just two hits. He
mixed up the deliveries superbly and his fastball came in too hard for the hitters. His numbers rightly explain his season, a 9-5 record with 119 strike-outs at an ERA of 2.66. Lee’s five strike-outs in this outing helped him past the 1200 strike-outs mark
in his career, now standing at 1204.
Lee’s counterpart, Josh Beckett from the Red Sox was no way near his feat. Beckett pitched in six innings and leaked five runs with just a sole strike-out to his credit. The pressure imposed by Lee not only dispirited the Boston bull-pen but also allowed
the Philadelphia batters to hit at will. Beckett ended up losing his third game of the season.
Commenting on his outstanding achievement, Lee remained modest and attributed hard-work as the major ingredient for his success. Lee downplayed the talk about setting targets and said that he does not think about shut-outs before the game. Although Lee wants
a clean sheet in every outing, it does not get onto his mind.
With Lee patrolling the Boston scoring, Shane Victorino and Domonic Brown took on the assault in hitting with both scoring a total of four runs. Brown unleashed a magnificent 409-feet hit for his fifth home-run this season before Victorino added one to take
the scoring at 2-0 at the end of the second innings.
Brown added his second run in the fifth innings to establish a sold three-run lead. Victorino had no intentions of staying behind and he connected 377-feet to the right, recording his ninth home-run this season. Placido Polanco has been connecting well this
season and he rightly did so again. He scored the fifth run for the Phillies to record their 50th win this season in 80 games.
In a series potentially viewed as a World Series taster, the Philadelphia side had the better of Boston. Terry Francona, the Red Sox manager, was all-praise for Lee’s performance. Terry did signal that a few changes are in the pipeline for the next game
to counter the Phillies but was not specific.
The next game between the Phillies and the Red Sox is scheduled for Wednesday, June 29. Playing under capacity crowd, it will be interesting to see how Boston recovers from this shut-out performance. The Phillies will hope that their winning streak continues.
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