On Wednesday afternoon, the Rangers' Cliff Lee opened up the 2010 playoffs with seven dominant innings, in which he struck out ten Rays and allowed only one run. His career postseason statistics look like this:
47.1 innings pitched
43 strikeouts
1.53 ERA
0.807 WHIP
Lee is getting a bit of a late start, as he never appeared in the postseason prior to the Phillies' 2009 playoff run, but it's worth considering whether this guy is now The Best Playoff Pitcher In Baseball. That title once belonged to Curt Schilling and his 2.23 ERA through 133 innings, or perhaps John Smoltz and his 2.67 through 209 innings.
After the jump, please observe Cliff Lee catching the final out in Game 1 of last year's World Series. Yawn. Big-game pitching dominance. Whatevs.