Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The Phillies are in mid-season form– squandering golden-streamed opportunities because they can’t hit.

In front of 23,382, Lee pitched nine innings and struck out 13 while scattering 11 hits, one walk and one run. He threw 85 of his career-high 128 pitches for strikes. He left a steaming pile of pissed excellence on the mound. He took the loss. It’s the second time in five starts, dating back to his final start of the season last year, that he struck out 13 Braves and lost 1-0.

Here’s Lee on being sent back out for the ninth even though he was over 100 pitches:

“I felt strong on the last pitch and I felt strong on the first pitch,” Lee said. “That’s what you want to do, you want to be a guy that they’re going to let go back out there after you’ve thrown 100-plus pitches and pitch the ninth inning. That’s what I expect to do and I’m glad they allow me to do that. That’s what I work in the offseason for and prepare my body to do, so it’s not anything that’s that crazy to me.”

Love that quote. Lee and Chase Utley might be the only two baseball players on the team right now.

And indeed Lee was as strong on the last pitch as he was the first. From Brooks Baseball:

Voila_Capture 2014-04-17_08-48-16_AMFastballs in the low 90s, breaking pitches in the mid 70s, all night long, like a Lionel Richie song. His consistency and precision, also excellent:

Voila_Capture 2014-04-17_08-49-33_AM

Look at the fade on his two-seam fastballs (sinkers) and changeups. A one-foot tail on those babies.

It used to be fun to write about Lee’s brilliance is melodramatic prose, to wax mythical about our favorite steed. But no longer. I don’t even think anyone cares. Did anyone watch? If there’s a two and a half hour pitchers’ duel in a freezing ballpark in April and no one is there to see it, does it really happen?

The Phils managed a whopping [breaks out calculator] three hits – all singles – against Julio Teheran, who also pitched quite well. Awesome.