SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
Recalling an interleague loss to Cliff Lee in Cleveland last season, manager Bruce Bochy said, "He ran right through us."
Lee rolled through them again Friday night in his first start as a Phillie. This time, he brought a bulldozer.
The 2008 American League Cy Young winner, the new ace of the Philadelphia staff after a trade, threw a four-hitter in a 5-1 victory that emphatically squashed the Giants' four-game winning streak.
Even with a loss, the Giants completed their third consecutive winning month (14-13), the first time they have done that since their 100-win 2003 season.
Lee did not allow a hit until Juan Uribe's well-placed flyball double in the sixth inning. Aaron Rowand doubled in the seventh for his 1,000th career hit, Travis Ishikawa added a bad-hop single and Eugenio Velez had a groundball single.
"There's no secret why guys like that and Timmy (Lincecum) have Cy Youngs," said Ryan Sadowski, who took his fourth straight loss. "You watch those guys and they're consistently great. It's one thing to be consistently good and another to be consistently great."
Sadowski's spot in the rotation might be in severe jeopardy, and not merely for performance. Bochy lifted him after four innings because the right-hander's shoulder tightened on a frigid and foggy evening. He again struggled to throw strikes but allowed only one run, on a Jayson Werth homer.
Sadowski has great perspective for a rookie. As reporters peppered him with questions about his shoulder, he reminded them that "I once played with blood in my brain," a reference to a life-threatening ailment he had in the minors.
As much as he wanted to pitch through it, Sadowski said, he believed he had to depart for the good of a team that needs every win it can muster in a wild-card race.
The Giants' 16th home loss of 2009 was sealed in a terrible three-run seventh in which eight Phillies batted and only one hit safely. Brandon Medders walked two of his three hitters. Jeremy Affeldt hit Ryan Howard and walked in a run before Werth lined a two-run single to center.
The 4-0 lead was plenty for Lee, whose dominance was easy to explain.
"He pounded the strike zone and had good command on both sides of the plate," Bochy said. "He had great stuff today. The guy won a Cy Young last year and he was on top of his game. When he is, he's tough to hit. He shut us down."
The same could not be said for Giants pitchers against Lee, an American League pitcher who theoretically should not know which end of a bat to grip. Indeed, he had two career hits in 33 at-bats, one in 2004 and another in 2006, until he banged two more in his Phillies debut, a single off Sadowski and a double off Bobby Howry.
With Rowand's return from a forearm injury, Bochy announced a fundamental change in the lineup.
Rowand had been at leadoff since May 20 and had some success there, but with new second baseman Freddy Sanchez batting second, given his ability to handle the bat, Bochy wants a faster runner hitting first. Sanchez will not start before Sunday, but Bochy already had Randy Winn hitting leadoff Friday with Rowand sixth.
Ryan Garko hit fifth Friday and had the Giants' best at-bat against Lee, his Cleveland teammate until Monday. Garko made the lefty throw 12 pitches for a second-inning walk.
However, Garko also grounded out and popped out, making him 1-for-12 in his first four games as a Giant.
 Philadelphia (59-42) Won 1 | Philadelphia 5, San Francisco 1 |  San Francisco (56-47) Lost 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 7/31/09 | Gameday |
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