"If this was a World Series preview, book Broad Street for a parade now.

The Philadelphia Phillies swatted the Boston Red Sox away like a regal elephant brushing aside a bothersome gnat in Tuesday's 5-0 win in the first of a three-game interleague showdown of elite teams at Citizens Bank Park.

Boston may have come in with the second-best record in the American League, but the Red Sox went so quietly against the commanding figure of the untouchable Cliff Lee that they looked like the second-best team in the Massachusetts American Legion, maybe.

The lefty Lee couldn't have been much better as he baffled Boston during a masterpiece of a two-hit shutout that was a no-hitter through five innings. Lee's third consecutive shutout -- the first such run for a Phillie since Robin Roberts in 1950 -- ran his career-best scoreless streak to 32 innings, the fifth best in team history.

Lee's dominance was all the more remarkable because he has historically struggled against Boston. Lee entered Tuesday 0-3 with a 4.64 ERA in his last five starts against the Red Sox. He left with a 5-0 record in June and an 0.23 ERA.

Following another trend, though, maybe Lee's dominance could have been foreseen as Tuesday's triumph continued his dominance in interleague play. Lee's 17-3 (.850) record is the best all-time in interleague play of any pitcher with a minimum 20 starts.

"I'm just making pitches; I've been throwing my breaking balls more and I've gotten lucky with them a bit," Lee said. "I've been told my whole career to throw my curveball more, but that was hard to justify when I could do a better job of locating my other pitches more. But I guess I'm wising up to the fact that throwing (the curve) more is good no matter what."

As Lee noted, the curveball provides the greatest comparison to his fastball of his pitches (cutter and changeup the others). "It's the biggest difference in speed variance," he said."