Cliff Lee Indicates ‘Pride’ May be Issue in Near Future After Phillies Outscored 20-2

The Phillies lost two games in a row recently, one 14-2 and one 6-0, putting their collective loss in Cleveland at 20-2.

Cliff Lee pitched one of the two games, and admitted quite openly that the Phillies were “crushed” and never really stood a chance.  He also brought up the concept of “pride.”

There is no ten run rule in Major League Baseball, though boy, it would have been pretty nice to see that invoked recently.  This was a demoralizing series – and it was just two games – for a coupel of reasons.  Roy Halalday’s streak of positive signs was combusted quite resoundingly.  Cliff Lee, arguably our best pitcher, was also systematically destroyed.

May 1, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee (33) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric P. Mull-USA TODAY Sports

Through a combination of bad luck and bad pitching, the bullpen could do nothing but bleed runs.

The offense got even less accomplished, putting together two runs on a pair of solo shots from Delmon Young and Chase Utley.  In the second game, they worked seven walks from Trevor Bauer AND THEN GOT SHUT OUT.

The sweep of the Mets evaporated and the good will for Doc went up in smoke.

Now, we return home to face the worst team in the league for four games, after recently becoming worse than them in a pretty important statistic.

So yeah, let’s start with pride.  There’s not a lot to be proud of right now.  But if the Phillies can sweep together some crumbs of pride and sort of ball it up as a kind of filthy pride-sphere and just kind of hang onto it for awhile, maybe they can beat the Marlins.

There’s bad baseball, there’s bad luck.  But if Cliff Lee, the most tight-lipped, casual guy on the roster is willing to admit the team needs more pride; one of the most basic, beginning concepts of operating in public as a person, let alone an athlete, then oh man.  Oh, oh, man.