Screen shot 2011-06-23 at 8.11.58 AMHoly jumpin'!

Swooooooooooooon.

There is nothing in existence that describes the wonder of Clifton Phifer. Only this: In a village somewhere, there are magical wolves dancing on the chins of ironic men of yore. Our presumed one-trick pony is displaying more chicanery than an asshole who just learned how to guess the card that is inexplicably tucked behind your ear. Lee is less annoying, however.

He throws – fastballs and changeups, curveballs and cutters, those are a few Lee's favorite things. He hits, he runs, he leaps. It's all absurd, really. Just like this lede.

[Delco Times]

Since giving up a season-high-tying six runs in a 10-2 loss at Washington May 31, Lee has allowed one earned run in his last four starts. Lee is 4-0 with a 0.27 ERA in June.

He has lowered his ERA from 3.94 to 2.87 in his last four starts.  When Yadier Molina bounced out to short, Lee had recorded 11 of his last 14 outs on ground balls.

 

Good Christ. Just look at this top-down pitch view from last night. It looks like the More You Know logo, only this time Scott Bakula isn't feeding us useful life lessons.

After throwing his first seven pitches for balls (after a six walk performance the last time he pitched in St. Louis), Lee threw 86 of his next 119 pitches for strikes. That's 72%. My word. He struck out three, walked one, and gave up six hits. All of that totals less than one baserunner per inning.

Lee also leaps (seen above) and does this, somehow deflecting a ball directly to Chase Utley… without looking:

Screen shot 2011-06-23 at 8.12.50 AM

Cliff is unfazed by it all, really: [via David Hale]

Whatever.

Prior to the game, Charlie Manuel was looking for a right-handed hitter: [CSN Philly]

“Let me put it to you like this,” he said. “The odds get better if we had one.”

 

Today is the 40-year anniversery of Rick Wise's two home run no-hitter. One of the most dominating performances of all-time.

Finally, Jim McCormick has more statiscals on Lee.