Okay Cliff Lee, Show Us Your Stuff

By Richie Whitt Thu., Jul. 22 2010 at 11:00 AM

Categories: Texas Rangers

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The Texas Rangers have a five-game lead in the American League West. Tonight they begin a four-game series with the second-place Anaheim Angels in Arlington. (And over the next 11 days they'll face the Angels seven times. How the West was won, anyone?)

In other words, time for new pitching ace Cliff Lee to earn his money.

Lee has been good, but not great, in his first two starts. He has pitched nine innings in both games but the Rangers are 0-2 in his starts, one when he allowed three homers to the lowly Baltimore Orioles and last week when he gave up a two-out, 9th-inning hit in Boston that forced the game into extra innings.

The Rangers brought Lee to Texas for games like tonight. Last year with the Philadelphia Phillies he was 7-2 in the final two months of the season including a sparkling 4-0 in the playoffs.

If he gets the Rangers off a good start tonight, their lead on the Angels could be seven games by Monday.

Thursday: Cliff Lee vs. Jered Weaver - In a battle of aces the Rangers must win a game with their best on the mound.

Friday: C.J. Wilson vs. Joe Saunders - Rangers have never lost to Saunders and Wilson has been Texas' most consistent pitcher from Opening Day.

Saturday: Scott Feldman vs. Ervin Santana - On paper, Texas' worst matchup of the series. Feldman has done nothing this year except blow leads.

Sunday: Tommy Hunter vs. Sean O'Sullivan - Hunter has yet to lose this season.

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Baseball, Cliff Lee, Josh Hamilton

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I saw a program about that on TV last night. Thanks for explaining it more thoroughly
Cliff will be there when the Rangers need him. He is a first rate pitcher and I have no doubts about him pitching great in this series.
Elvis on the base paths = Monkey fucking football. He looks confused
Thank you Cliff for showing us your muff----I mean stuff. Now Elvis needs to quit showing what a bonehead he is on the basepaths.
Answer to the Headline. "Ok, no problem" Sincerely, Cliff Lee
Meow, meow..kergo and scotts meo..couch..meowrkin are even ..meow..sane..I'm going to meow...meow..read a 2012 book..all is good in meorlington..it's gonna be a meow, meow ...Dirk night
Show us your stuff? Because 26 1/3 with only one walk isn't good enough? Jeez, what do you want? A complete game shut-out every time? His era is the best in the AL, and it went DOWN against Boston. That's his fault? Wow.
BI and SM are right--even if Cliff loses pitching 9, it keeps those guys planted on their asses in the bullpen as spectators. Which is another day their arms aren't in use. So when Scooter or CJ are bringing all the accuracy of a Nerf gun to the mound and barely get through 5, the peanut gallery is ready to pitch. Plus pay attention to quotes from the other pitchers. If anyone thinks they aren't learning through observation and osmosis, think again. They wanna be like Cliffy Lee be.
Oh my people, Baseball intelligence is correct. If you dont understand what it means to have your starters go 9 innings, then you people are lost. Regardless of if he won or lost he ate innings the bullpen would otherwise have pitched. Whether Cliff Lee wins or not each start in negated by the fact of how much better this team and staff is overall. If we pick up 4 wins on other nights that he doesnt pitch bc the bullpen was fresh and kept us in a game then its worth it. And yes his is an ace, and I would pay to go see him live bc he is hte best pitcher since Nolan to sport Rangers jersey, but alas I cant until the auction is complete and hicks is gone. Sometime Principles suck, but I must live up to them
totally agree with jeff lee's last outing (against boston) was obviously a so-called "quality start," but that's nothing more than a stat and we didn't acquire lee for stats, we acquired him for WINS what he's done for us so far would be fine if he was a #3 or #4 starter - maybe even for a #2...but he's a #1 - an ace blame the lack of run support all you want, but when the ace's team scores two, he has to hold the other team to one...that is the definition of an ace
You guys can't really be serious that Cliff Lee hasn't been that good right?? I have never seen 2 more efficient, flukey, dominant losses in my entire life. yeah he gave up some home runs against the O's, but its not like they were hitting bombs, that was just one of those games where fly outs turned into wall scrapers. Boston was absurd, I still don't know how that game was lost. The bottom line is that I've never seen a pitcher in a Ranger's uniform pitch with the efficiency and dominance combination that Cliff Lee does. We are watching something special, if you'll just actually watch instead of looking at the box score the day after.
I'm kinda in the same boat as Richie... if he's this great, WIN SOME EFFIN' GAMES! LEE lost the game against Baltimore by giving up all those runs. LEE lost the game against Boston by not closing them out in the 9th. A win is a win. Sure, losing now is not necessarily as bad as the last week of the season, but wouldn't we all rather be watching our rent-an-ace win some games?
@ kergo - The whole point is that you cannot say those two games are meaningless, and the other side cannot say the sky is falling. They mean something, but not everything
Lee's been damn good. The team behind him seems to think they can make him do all the work alone though.
Hey Richie, Hire Kergo to help you out.
so glad we got Lee instead of Oswalt....he's asking for alot, he's old, and not very durable. talk about a contract that could saddle you! imagine if we had kept millie, instead of picking up harden? if they could get lowell and make davis the backup, it would be playoff fever around here. LOVE LEE. P1 Jeremy, you can't say that losing two now will affect your standing in the long run (even if it is two games in the standings at seasons end), the team makes adjustments along the way based upon who needs rest, medical, etc. Lots of baseball left. Good teams play up to competition......the good thing about Warsh is he DOESN'T submit to emotion or a bad game(s) ala Baltimore....just a blip on the radar now that they have won series against the Sox and Tigers-even though the Sox are a AAA team, but, you gotta win those games.
Richie, were you watching Derrek Lee pitch or something? Those were two of the best pitched losses I've ever seen. 18 innings pitched, less than a 100 pitches each time, 1 walk (intentional), only 4 bad pitches and if the Rangers didn't pull a Royals with Greinke on the mound last year non-hitting stunt out, he'd be 2-0. I'd take those performances over a 110 pitch, 5-1/3 inning, 4 walk Feldman white-knuckle ride that happens to turn into a win any day.
@ EVERYONE ... THERE IS A HAPPY MEDIUM ... If the Rangers lose the division by 2 games will those single games have mattered ? Every game counts, but the season is a season for a reason. Every game is not the end of the world, but at the same time it is not meaningless either. I think the saying goes you can't play your way into the playoffs in the early season, but you can definitely play your way out.
Kergo, while correct in a sense, is wrong in that, if we lose 1 game tonight and 1 game tomorrow and 1 the next all to the Angels...well you see where I am going, 5 game lead goes kaput. Now win tonight and win 1 tomorrow and take 5 or 6 of 7 from the angels and the Rangers could pretty much have this division wrapped up in 11 days, barring the worst choke in baseball history.
Is the latest Crash Davis experiment nearly over? Back to OKC. Feldman can drive.
Hate to say it but Kergo is correct, if Lee goes 5-8 the rest of the way..but pitches 8 or 9 every five days..success. Our bullpen was ready to spontaneous combust at any moment prior to the All Star break. Still loving the deal, if y'all haven't noticed the big ol mean Yankees of York are dropping like flies and A-roid and the douche named Texeira aren't hitting..
RW, You are way wrong....we didn't bring Cliffy in for July games. If he pitches 9 strong and loses every game and saves the pen every fifth day-sucess! He was brought in to win in September and beyond. Repeat: to redneck followers of RW blog (with exception being Kergo and Fake Scott) and people who know very little about championship baseball. Singular July games mean NOTHING. Nothing. They are good for the following: -giving the kids something to do -having some beers and sitting in the sun -fireworks -watching the birddogs (just kidding, they suck!)...but you get the point -maybe seiing a flyover -watching the bored haus frau's kergi out b%tches!
Wouldn't be surprised to see Harrison start Saturday.