Today is more than a challenge. It will help define a career.
Lee was the odd man out of the rotation in the 2007 Indians' run to the American League Championship Series. He then won 22 games and the American League Cy Young award last season . . . for an Indians team that played for nothing. He went 7-4 after the trade this season for a Phillies team that expects to play for everything.
And he has the ball in the first step along that path.
"It's an honor," Lee said.
One well-deserved, said manager Charlie Manuel.
"I don't think you can win a Cy Young if you can't pitch in a big game," Manuel said. "I'm sure he's pitched in some big games somewhere along the line. And if he hasn't, he damned sure has earned the right to pitch in one."
That right comes ahead of the equity assumed Phillies ace Cole Hamels built last season, when he won the NLCS and World Series MVP awards. Hamels will start Game 2 tomorrow.
Manuel said he didn't want Hamels to start on 3 days' rest, although Hamels' last outing was short.
Manuel didn't say the obvious: Lee's performance this season, combined with his dominance in the AL last year, seems to give the Phils the better chance to win.
Hamels finished the season 4-8 with a 4.16 ERA in 12 starts. He occasionally was unhittable but often was unrecognizable.
Lee seemed to falter, too, as the innings piled up and the league came to know him. He was 2-4 with a 6.13 ERA in his last seven starts. His command appeared to leave him . . .
"Where did it go? What are you talking about?" asked Lee, who in fact, walked only four and struck out 35 in those seven games.
The opposition just hit .331 with seven homers off him. So . . . pitch selection?
"Usually, when he has some problems, it might be his pitch selection," Manuel said.
Not fatigue . . . right?
"No. I feel as strong as I've felt the whole year," said Lee, who logged a career-high 231 2/3 innings.
