"It was a little off," he said. "It was a game where I had to battle a little bit . . . more than I've had to in the past few games."
Lee was behind batters early, throwing first-pitch balls to eight of the first 13 Yankee batters he faced.
But as the temperatures dipped inside Citizens Bank Park, Lee warmed up and looked like the Cliff Lee who had not surrendered an earned run in 18 1/3 consecutive innings, let alone a walk in 17. Both streaks were broken before he could get three outs last night.
Lee, in the zone with Carlos Ruiz, started to get ahead in the early count. He threw first-pitch strikes on nine of 12 batters in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, mowing down the powerful Yankees' lineup with just a single and a base on balls in that three-inning stretch.
He didn't have a single at-bat that lasted more than six pitches all night.
"I was focused on throwing strikes and staying locked in with the catcher," Lee said.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel put a quick end to the chatter about possibly not pitching Lee to the limit last night to enable him to return for Game 7. For Manuel, there was no saving Lee for another day - even though he had a fresh and healthy Chan Ho Park and Ryan Madson in the bullpen - with an 8-2 lead.
"It would have to get a little bit bigger," Manuel said about what size lead he would have needed to pull Lee early.
"I was watching him," Manuel said. "Was I thinking about taking him out? Somewhat. But actually I definitely hadn't - I wasn't ready to take him out. I definitely wanted him to go back out and I wanted him to throw some."
Manuel waited until Lee unraveled in the eighth to yank him.
"Once they started to get some hits on him," Manuel said, "I definitely thought it was time to go get him."
