Cliff Lee Continues Career Year

Throughout out a disappointing 2008 season, Cliff Lee has given Cleveland Indians fans something to smile about. Winning his 22^nd game, and his 11^th decision in a row, Lee continued his torrid season against the Kansas City Royals on Friday. He is now 5-0 against the Royals this season. The Royals might not feel too much shame for letting Lee shut them down though.

The Indians ace has lost only two decisions in 29 starts this year while dominating the American League. His 22-2 record makes him the first pitcher to be 20 games over .500 since 1990 when Bob Welch won the AL Cy Young Award going 27-6 for Oakland. He has been consistently excellent from the moment the 2008 season began, winning his first six games and holding down a 2.36 ERA into September. Lee is making himself a lock for the Cy Young Award this year. If he does win the award, he will be the second consecutive Indian to do so, following CC Sabathia.

After being demoted to the minor leagues at one point in 2007, the turnaround made by Lee is staggering. The ace pitcher was 5-8 with 6.29 ERA and was left off of Cleveland’s postseason roster in 2007. At one point he was booed off of the field by Cleveland fans after allowing 7 runs in 4 innings.

2008 has been a different story though. With a WHIP of only 1.06 through 29 starts, Lee has been one of the few reasons for Indians fans to cheer this season. One of the most noticeable differences in Lee has been his control. He has walked only 28 batters in 210 innings pitched after walking 36 in only 97.1 innings pitched last year. The last season that Cliff Lee pitched at least 200 innings in, 2006, he walked 58. In winning his 22^nd game of the year he never once went to a three ball count.

The left handed hurler has also been going deeper into games in 2008. He has already set a new career high for innings pitched and could still get three more starts before the season ends. Lee also recorded the first two shutouts of his career this season, and has tossed four complete games. He was two outs away from his fifth complete game of 2008 on Friday when the Royals finally drove him out of the game. Lee had never thrown more than a single complete game in a season before.

He was rewarded for his stellar performance in the first half on 2008 by being named the AL All-Star starter by manager Terry Francona. In the game, Lee pitched two scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and striking out three. The American League would go on to win 4-3 in extra innings.

Adding more merit to Lee’s impressive season is the disappointing team he’s been pitching for. Coming into the year with very high expectations, the Indians had abandoned their season by July. A lack of offense plagued the team early on and they were never able to right the ship for the season. Even with arguably the best pitcher of 2008 pitching for them, the Indians dropped all the way to last place in the AL Central, and began to cut loose most of their veteran talent.

CC Sabathia was traded to Milwaukee for prospects, and closer Joe Borowski was released outright. The Indians also sent versatile veteran Casey Blake to the Dodgers for two minor leaguers. Cleveland hardly seemed like a team capable of producing a pitcher with such gaudy statistics, but even with his team failing Lee continued to pick up steam.

He was named the AL pitcher of the month for a second time this season in August, going 5-0 with a 1.86 ERA for the month. Lee has not taken a loss since July 6 and his 11 game winning streak is the longest by an Indians pitcher since Gaylord Perry in 1974. On September 1, he did something else no Indians pitcher had done since Gaylord Perry in 1974, becoming the first Cleveland Indian to win 20 games in a season this century, by throwing a complete game shutout against the Chicago White Sox. With one more win Lee will become only the second lefty in Indians history to win 23 games, and the first to do so since Vean Gregg in 1911.

It’s hard to deny him as the front runner for this year’s Cy Young Award, but Lee is trying not look ahead as the season winds down. “It’s not over yet,” the ace said after Friday’s game. “So far, it’s going pretty good,” he added. “But I’m not going to start patting myself on the back yet.” Lee’s next start will likely be against the Minnesota Twins, the last team to beat him.

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