{"id":23417,"date":"2012-06-22T08:57:19","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T13:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=23417"},"modified":"2012-06-22T08:57:19","modified_gmt":"2012-06-22T13:57:19","slug":"cliff-lee-philadelphia-phillies-sp-is-still-searching-for-his-first-win-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/cliff-lee-philadelphia-phillies-sp-is-still-searching-for-his-first-win-in-2012-23417\/","title":{"rendered":"Cliff Lee: Philadelphia Phillies SP Is Still Searching for His First Win in 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays (38-31) and Philadelphia Phillies (33-38) will open up a three-game interleague series on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 ET<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays at Philadelphia Phillies<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Philadelphia Phillies SP Cliff Lee has received little support from the offense this year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tampa Bay will begin its fifth consecutive series against an opponent from the National League East, as it looks to snap a two-game losing streak in the process, which has dropped the club 3.5 games back of the New York Yankees in the AL East division.\u00a0 The Rays offense has been limited to three runs or fewer over their last six contests, while also hitting just .225 overall against left-handed pitchers.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 9-14 versus southpaws this season, with the \u201cunder\u201d going 11-10 in that situation.<\/p>\n

Rays starting pitcher James Shields (7-4, 3.72 ERA) didn\u2019t earn a decision in a 4-3 home loss to the Miami Marlins last time out, giving up three runs (zero earned) and eight hits over 7.2 frames.\u00a0 The right-hander owns a 10-8 record and 4.04 ERA in 25 interleague appearances (24 starts), including a 10-4 win over the Phillies on June 16, 2006.\u00a0 In seven road outings this year, Shields has gone 5-2 with a 3.72 ERA, surrendering six home runs in 46 combined innings.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia has lost 12 of its last 14 games, giving the club the second-worst mark in baseball over that span.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s baseball,\u201d commented Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino about the situation.\u00a0 \u201cSomebody\u2019s got to win.\u201d\u00a0 The Phillies have also managed to lose 11 of their last 15 games at home, which directly followed a season-best four-game winning streak in front of their home fans from May 13-18.\u00a0 Philadelphia is 4-8 in interleague play, with the \u201cover\u201d going 8-4 in those contests.<\/p>\n

Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee (0-3, 3.48 ERA) has watched the club drop his last three outings, as he gets set to make his first home start since June 5.\u00a0 The left-hander is 0-3 with a 3.53 ERA in five outings at this ball park, issuing just four walks and striking out 41 in 35.2 combined frames.\u00a0 In 13 career starts versus the Rays, Lee has tallied a 6-5 record and 2.87 ERA, limiting them to a .228 batting average.\u00a0 His run-support average of 2.90 is currently the third-worst in all of baseball.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Phillies due to their 9-4 mark in series openers, while the Rays are 1-4 in Shields\u2019 last five efforts as a road underdog of +110 to +150.<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays (38-31) and Philadelphia Phillies (33-38) will open up a three-game interleague series on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 ET Tampa Bay Rays at Philadelphia Phillies Tampa Bay will begin its fifth consecutive series against an opponent from the National League East, as it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1752,102,86,98,150],"class_list":["post-23417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-citizens-bank-park","tag-cliff-lee","tag-james-shields","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23418,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23417\/revisions\/23418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}