"Cliff Lee was one strike away from completing a four-hit shutout, which would have been his major-league leading seventh of the season.

The crowd was on its feet, roaring with anticipation. Then Lee left a backdoor cutter over the plate, and Jose Lopez smacked the 0-2 pitch into the stands in left field, and just like that the game was tied.

"Obviously that's frustrating," Lee said. "No doubt about it. But what can you do about it? What's done is done. I've got to recover and try to get the next guy out."

But like everything else in this season of unprecedented success, the Phillies overcame that when Ryan Howard, batting for the first time in the game, doubled in the 10th inning to score Michael Martinez with the winning run.

That gave the Phillies a 2-1 win the second game of a doubleheader. They won the first game 3-1. By sweeping the Florida Marlins, the Phillies (97-51) reduced their magic number for clinching their fifth straight NL East crown to two. They can finish it off tonight with a win over the Cardinals and a Braves loss to the Mets.

Lee, meanwhile, was dominating. He gave up a run on five hits and struck out 12 in nine innings. His home scoreless streak ended at 292/3 innings. Still, he is 7-0 with a 1.00 ERA over his last nine starts."