Cliff Lee threw seven impressive innings, Valdez hit a tie-breaking two-run double in the seventh, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Arizona 9-2 on Wednesday night to snap the Diamondbacks’ seven-game winning streak.
Lee (13-7) allowed two runs and three hits, striking out seven. The All-Star lefty has won four straight starts. Lee’s 18-inning scoreless streak ended when Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer for the NL West leaders.
Jimmy Rollins hit a leadoff homer for the major league leading Phillies, who’ve won 11 of 14 this month.
Diamondbacks starter Joe Saunders (8-10) pitched well before unraveling in the seventh. He gave up five runs and five hits in six-plus innings.
Hunter Pence walked to start Philadelphia’s seventh and advanced to third on John Mayberry Jr.’s single to right. Valdez followed with a double off the wall in straightaway center to put the Phillies up 4-2. Pinch hitter Ben Francisco’s sacrifice fly extended the lead to 5-2.
“Anytime I get a chance to play, I want to do my best,” said Valdez, filling in for injured All-Star third baseman Placido Polanco.
Valdez flipped his bat as he ran toward first, seemingly thinking he had gone deep. But he said he thought the ball would be caught.
His teammates enjoyed his reaction.
“It’s funny watching Wilson hit,” Ryan Howard said. “It’s a show even when he gets a single. To see him go to center, the grown-up part of the field, it was funny. You never know what he’s going to do when he gets a hit.”
Rollins hit a sac fly and Shane Victorino doubled in a run during a four-run eighth for Philadelphia.
Rollins hit Saunders’ first pitch of the game out to deep left-center for his 37th career leadoff homer and second this season.
Goldschmidt connected in the second to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 lead. He has three homers in 14 games since making his big-league debut on Aug. 1. Goldschmidt’s first came off two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum and his second was a tying two-run shot in the ninth against Houston last Thursday.
“He’s one of the best in the game,” Goldschmidt said of Lee. “He can throw any pitch, any count, wherever he wants to. It’s fun to play against him.”
Lee settled in nicely after the homer.
“I was a little erratic the first couple innings,” he said. “I wasn’t commanding my pitches. After the second, I commanded the ball a lot better, stayed out of the heart of the plate and they didn’t score.”
The Phillies answered in the bottom half. Pence led off with a double and Mayberry followed with an RBI single to center. Pence inexplicably slid into third and still had to time to get up and score without a throw from center fielder Chris Young. He got high-fives from chuckling teammates in the dugout.
Lee nearly put the Phillies ahead when he hit a two-out grounder up the middle with a runner on third. But second baseman Ryan Roberts made a backhanded grab and his strong throw to first barely got Lee, who reacted angrily to the call. Manager Charlie Manuel came out to argue briefly, and received a standing ovation for doing so.
A crowd of 45,894 was the 199th straight sellout at Citizens Bank Park, including postseason play, and the largest in the regular season in the ballpark’s eight-year history.
Notes
Phillies C Carlos Ruiz wasn’t in the starting lineup because of a bruise in the groin area. … The Phillies are 17-3 on Wednesdays. They are 13-3 with Pence in the lineup. … The Diamondbacks are one of five teams with two seven-game winning streaks this year. … Lee had seven strikeouts and is one shy of his career-best 185 set last year with Seattle and Texas. … Rookie Vance Worley (8-1) pitches for the Phillies against Ian Kennedy (15-3) when the teams wrap up their series tonight. Worley has never faced the Diamondbacks.
