2009 Goose Joak Original Cliff Lee

Phillies 8, Diamondbacks 1

And that, my friends, is how you win a ball game. Great pitching, great hitting, steady defense - the game's easy Harry.

Staff ace Cliff Lee took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning tonight, eventually surrendering just two hits. In his fourth start as a Phillie, Cliff pitched his second complete game, improving his record to 4-0, and lowering his NL ERA to 0.82. He struck out a career high 11 and added 2 singles to raise his NL average to .385. He also saved several puppies from a burning building mid-way through the 3rd inning.

As has been the norm, the offense was provided by the long ball. Chase Utley hit a 2-run home run in the 3rd inning (his 25th) and Ryan Howard hit a 3-run home run in the 5th inning (his 31st). Jayson Werth hit his 26th and 27th homers of the year (both solo shots) in the 5th and 7th innings.

A Request: The card manufacturers (all two of them) need to hurry up and produce a few Cliff Lee Phillies cards. (Doesn't Topps put out their Update set soon?) Tonight's card comes courtesy of Goose Joak from his 2009 Goose Joak Originals set. If Cliff Lee pitches another gem his next time out, I'll need to get a little creative and either make another card or track down more custom cards from the blogosphere.