Phillies Hope Lee Can Push Them To .500
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Phillies will look to get back to the .500 mark on Wednesday night as they continue their series against the Washington Nationals.
The Phils moved to 45-46 on the season with a 4-2 win on Tuesday night over the Nats as Cole Hamels won his second straight start with 8 dominant innings of work. The Phillies have now won three straight and five of six.
A win tonight would get the Phillies back to the break even mark for the first time since they were 31-31 after losing to Milwaukee on June 7th.
Cliff Lee will make the start for the Phillies in this one. He is 10-2 this season and beat the Atlanta Braves in his last start. This will be his tenth career start against the Nationals. He has gone 6-3 in the first nine with a 2.48 ERA. Lee was actually selected by the Nats franchise, when they were still the Montreal Expos, in the 4th round of the 2000 MLB Draft.
His mound opponent in this game with be left-hander Gio Gonzalez. He is 6-3 this season and 3-1 in his career against the Phillies. Gonzalez actually spent a year in the Phillies' organization, going 7-12 for Double-A Reading in 2006. Phillies traded him to the White Sox following that season in the deal that brought Freddy Garcia to Philadelphia.
The Phillies have won five of eight match-ups with the Nationals this season.
KYW's Matt Leon spoke with Ben Davis of Comcast SportsNet about this match-up.
Ben Davis Interview
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