"It was a sight you just might see again before the season expires. In the eighth inning, Ryan Madson rose to his feet in the bullpen, walked to the mound, and began to throw to catcher Jesus Tiamo. In the ninth inning, Jose Contreras followed suit. All the while, Cliff Lee was on the mound at the center of Nationals Park, well under 100 pitches and cruising toward a complete-game shutout.

Twelve games into the 2011 season, the Phillies' setup/closer combination has made exactly three appearances. And if the two stars at the top of their rotation have anything to say about it, they won't see many more.

One night after Roy Halladay logged his first complete game of the season, Lee dominated the Nationals for nine innings, allowing four baserunners and striking out 12 in a 4-0 victory that improved the Phillies to 9-3.

It was nights like this that Phillies fans mourned when the team traded Lee to the Mariners last December, and it was nights like this they envisioned when the veteran lefthander returned via free agency last winter. For the first time since May 11, 1999, two Phillies pitchers logged back-to-back complete games. Back then, it was Paul Byrd and Curt Schilling against the Cardinals. This week, it was Lee following Halladay, albeit in entirely different fashion.

Six days after a frustrating outing against the Braves in which he allowed six runs in 3 innings, Lee was at his sharpest, pounding the strike zone with his fastball and cutter and avoiding the elevation that had cost him in his previous start. By the time Jayson Werth grounded out to end it, Lee had thrown just 99 pitches in a game that lasted 2 hours, 6 minutes.

The night before, it had taken Halladay 123 pitches and 2 hours and 30 minutes to pitch the Phillies to a 3-2 victory over the Nationals.

"I want to throw nine innings every time I take the mound," said Lee, who improved to 2-1 and lowered his ERA to 4.19. "That's that. I hope Roy does it every day before me, too. But that's what I'm going to try to do. Just because he threw a complete game, it's not like, oh, I've got to try to do that, too. I'm going to try to do that every time, regardless."

The only semblance of trouble he encountered came in the third inning, when Danny Espinosa led off with a double, then moved to third on a fly out by Jerry Hairston Jr. But with one out and Espinosa running on contact, opposing starter Jordan Zimmermann chopped a ball to shortstop, where Jimmy Rollins gloved it and fired home in plenty of time for Carlos Ruiz to block the plate and apply the tag."