19 scoreless innings

Cole Hamels plus Roy Halladay plus Cliff Lee equals three losses and not a whole lot of scoring.

The 3-0 loss to Lee on Wednesday ran the Reds’ scoreless innings streak to 19 innings.

Read the game recap here.

Notes:

*Brandon Phillips 13-game hitting streak is over after he went 0-for-4.

*Paul Janish is in a career-high 0-for-26 skid…the longest by a Reds batter this season. He was 0-for-3 tonight and batting .207.

*The last time the Reds were handed back-to-back shutouts was July 18-19 at Pittsburgh.

*The last time the Reds were shutout three-straigh times was April 18-19 and 21, 1989 vs. the Dodgers and Astros.

*Cliff Lee finished August 5-0 with a 0.45 ERA. He has 30 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings on the road. To quote the great Larry David … “pretty, pre-tty, pre-tty good.”

*Here is a tweet from colleague Todd Zolecki about Phillies manager Charlie Manuel to lift Lee with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth:

“I want Madson,” Manuel said. “You sure?” Lee said. “Damn sure,” Manuel replied. Case closed.

Quotes:

“Willis kept us off balance. He threw some changeups. We couldn’t handle him. The game was a little bit harder than it looked. We were having a hard time scoring off him.” — Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel

“Their pitching staff, they’re getting paid what our whole payroll is making. They earn their money. They can pitch.” — Dusty Baker

“I’ve walked guys before and they haven’t scored. You just have to make better pitches and kind of erase that and try not to let them put a crooked number on the board, which I didn’t. It’s just tough because you’re going against somebody that was pitching a lot better than you. Once I walk a guy or a base hit, I let it go and move on to the next guy.” — Dontrelle Willis, who walked five. His two leadoff walks to Shane Victorino led to runs.