Cliff Lee Comes Back After Shutout

In the previous night, Cliff Lee blanked the Giants for his 11^th victory and 5^th shutout of the season.  For Phillies, it looks like the left hander is back in top form after going through a tough July.

Lee was able to out-duel his counterpart Madison Bumgarneer, holding San Francisco to 7 hits while getting up 8 k’s and inducing 12 grounds ball outs.  The lefty once more got his season ERA south of 3 and provided the Phillies their league guiding 72^nd victory of the year.

Philadelphia is hoping that this may signal the coming of a month like June for Lee when he was able to win the entire 5 of his starts.  His numbers were mind blowing over the span; Lee permitted just a single run in his 42 innings pitching for a sterling 0.21 June ERA.  Opposing batters just controlled 21 hits off of him.

However, July was a different story for Lee.  Last month he went 1-2 with an earned run average of 4.91 over his 33 innings or work.  Lee as well gave up 39 hits and 4 or more runs in 3 of his 5 starts while he was able to strike out 40 in that span.

Frustration actually showed throughout a July 25^th start against the offensively challenged Padres. In a game that figured to allow Lee to right the ship, he gave up 10 hits and 5 runs in just 4 innings prior to being lifted for a pinch hitter.

It is not easy to tell a guy with an associate 3 ERA is having just an average year, though this comes out to be the case for Lee.  Lee has maintained monthly ERA’s over 3.70 on the year excluding his unbelievable June.

Philadelphia will look to him to turn things up a notch later in the season and bring the momentum into the playoffs. For their sake, hopefully Thursday is the start of one more prevailing stretch for the lefty.

Source Says Cromartie Signs Deal with Jets

According to a league source, the Jets verified one more item off their to-do list early Monday morning when they accepted the terms on a latest contract with free agent cornerback Antonio Cromartie.  It is considered to be a four-year contract, and the Daily News stated it is worth $32 million.

Cromartie tweeted “Cro is back” and “headed home glad 2 B a Jet. . .  let’s go win a Superbowl.” after the news broke.

It was the second significant player goes for the Jets in a span of around 16 hours.  They signed free agent wide receiver Plaxico Burress to a one year, $3.017 million agreement.  The team selected not to re-sign Braylon Edwards, who led the Jets in receptions last season and signing Burress in its place resulted in a savings that helped enable them to re-up Cromartie.

Cromartie played right cornerback for the Jets in the previous season after being acquired from San Diego in a March 2010 trade.   He had a firm reason, but rumors where that he was annoyed by the Jets’ extremely open dalliance previous week with free agent Nnamdi Asomugha, who finally signed with Philadelphia on Friday.  Some money probably helped smooth over the hard feelings.

In a radio interview last month, Cromartie had said that there was “no such thing” as a hometown discount, although he as well had made clear he wished to go back.  Oakland, which lost Asomugha to free agency, was reported to be the other main suitor.  The Jets as well had interest in free agent Philipp Buchanon as a fallback choice at corner, but wound up not having to go that way.

Cromartie, 6-foot-2, has 18 interceptions in his five-year NFL profession, counting three last seasons.