The Rangers' ace has failed to impress over his last few starts and his overall earned run average and record have been sub-par at best since joining the club. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)After a near-perfect first half of the season with the Seattle Mariners, Cliff Lee's performance has begun to slide with the Texas Rangers.
Don't get me wrong, Lee is an ace in every sense of the word. He eats up innings consistently, pounds the strike zone game-in, game-out and isn't fazed by just about anything on the mound.
However, over his last three starts, Lee has had one of the worst stretches of not only this season, but of his entire career. While an extra day of rest seems to be in order, Lee says he feels there are no underlying problems, just a few correctable mistakes.
"I haven't been locating pitches as well as I expect myself to and they haven't missed them," Lee said after his last start in Minnesota, a 6-4 loss in which he allowed five runs in five innings. "It's just been a handful of pitches and they happened to capitalize on them. I've got to do a better job of staying out of the heart of the plate. That's really it."
Those "handful of pitches" have accounted for a horrendous run of starts in recent weeks. Over Lee's last three starts, the lefty has allowed a total of 19 runs on 26 hits in only 18 1-3 innings which. While he's struck out 19 batters over this time, he's also allowed five home runs this season in the last two games alone, over a third of his total homers allowed all-season (14).
"I'm a guy who's expected to take the ball every fifth day and go deep into games," Lee said. "That's what I want to do and, for the most part, I've done that this year. I've just run into a little rough stretch."
This rough patch concludes 10 starts with Texas, in which Lee has gone 2-5, and in which Texas has won only three of those games. Not to mention, his earned run average (ERA) has leaped nearly a full point since arriving with the Rangers, as he's gone from first in the American League in ERA (2.34) to 10th (3.26).
Lee's track record suggests that he's right and he really is just going through a slump, just like all Major League players go through during the course of a 162-game season. Let's also not discount the fact the Lee also had a stretch of three starts with the Rangers in which he allowed only four runs on 16 hits and struck out 23 in 26 1-3 innings (two complete games), and only had one win to show for it.
Rangers' manager Ron Washington suggested giving Lee and extra day of rest to, not only recharge, but maybe work out the kinks. I think this is a great idea for the only team in baseball that is basically guaranteed a playoff spot with the highest division lead in the Majors at this point in the season (8.5 games). Give Lee an extra day off now to make sure he's pitching his best and playing at full strength come playoff time.
(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)
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