PHILADELPHIA -- All those zeroes are no big deal to Cliff Lee. Lee tossed a five-hitter for his sixth shutout of the season, helping the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies beat the second-place Atlanta Braves 9-0 on Monday night. Lee (16-7) struck out six, walked none and needed only 100 pitches to finish off the Braves after falling one out shy of a shutout in his previous start at Cincinnati. The left-hander has won his last seven starts, five of those scoreless appearances. Hes the first pitcher to record six shutouts in a season since Randy Johnson in 1998. "I guess thats pretty good," Lee said with a shoulder shrug. "It is what it is. Obviously thats a good thing anytime you pitch the whole game and not give up any runs. But I dont think this is a time to pat myself on the back." The major league-leading Phillies increased their division lead to 8 1-2 games over Atlanta and reduced their magic number for clinching their fifth straight NL East title to just 16 with 25 games remaining. Hunter Pence drove in three runs, and Shane Victorino and Carlos Ruiz each hit a two-run single to help Philadelphia rough up Derek Lowe. Ryan Howard added his 31st homer. Lowe (9-13) allowed seven runs -- five earned -- and eight hits in five innings. The veteran righty had pitched well in his previous three starts, allowing just three earned runs in 18 innings. "They dominated every aspect of the game," Lowe said. "Sometimes you have to give credit. We got outplayed." Despite trailing the Phillies by a large deficit, the Braves should play into October. They lead the wild-card race by 8 1-2 games over St. Louis and San Francisco. Lee, the 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner, is making a strong push to win the NL award. Teammates Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels are also in the mix. Lee picked up where he left off in August when he was 5-0 with a microscopic 0.45 earned-run average. He lowered his ERA to 2.47 and surpassed 200 strikeouts for the first time in his career. "His command is very good, hes putting the ball where he wants to, moving his pitches around," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "On nights his curve is moving, hes very tough." Pence gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead with a two-run single in the first. Placido Polanco and Chase Utley hit consecutive one-out singles. After Howard walked to load the bases, Pence hit a bouncer past third baseman Martin Prado. Victorino added a two-out, two-run single in the fourth. Both runs were unearned because of an error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez on a bouncer hit by Ruiz that put two runners on. Victorino advanced to second on the throw to the plate after his single. He stole third and kept on running home when the ball skipped past catcher Brian McCann. But Lowe covered in time to tag out Victorino, who stopped a couple feet short of the plate, ducked and tried to sneak under Lowes tag. Utley hit a triple high off the right-field fence with one out in the fifth. After Howard was intentionally walked, Pence ripped an RBI double just inside the first-base bag. Ruiz added a two-run single that made it 7-0. Howard lined a solo shot out to right in the eighth. "This is September and were trying to finish up strong," Howard said. "You cant let up on them. Weve been on the other side where the Mets had a big lead (in September) and we came back." Howard also made an outstanding over-the-shoulder, sliding catch in front of the railing after running a long way down the right-field foul line in the fifth. He got a standing ovation from an appreciative crowd of 45,267. It was the 205th consecutive sellout at Citizens Bank Park, including post-season play. Fans mocked the Braves with the tomahawk chop in the eighth and ninth. NOTES: Atlantas Chipper Jones wasnt in the lineup because of flu symptoms. ... The Phillies have 20 shutouts this season. ... Lee became the fourth Phillies lefty to record 200 strikeouts in a season. ... Lee was the NL Pitcher of the Month in June after going 5-0 with an 0.21 ERA. ... Lee hadnt had much success against Atlanta, going 1-3 in his previous six career starts. ...Lees winning streak is his longest since winning eight in a row with Cleveland and the Phillies from July 16 to Aug. 24, 2009. ... Utley came in slumping. He was 2 for 28 before going 2 for 5. ... Vance Worley (10-1, 2.85) pitches for the Phillies on Tuesday night. Tim Hudson (14-8, 3.05) goes for the Braves. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . In a statement issued Tuesday, the federation said the Chomutov Pirates were fined 30,000 koruna ($1,554) by its disciplinary committee for the chants directed toward Simmonds, who currently plays for the Liberec White Tigers. The incident took place during Sundays game between the Pirates and the Tigers. Wholesale Jerseys From China . -- Lindsey Vonn felt pressure to win the season-opening World Cup downhill at Lake Louise, even though she is the most dominant ski racer there. http://www.nflwholesalecheap... . The team is set to compete in August in the biggest tournament of the Olympic quadrennial, and give their everything to wrestle for medals in London from August 8 to 12. Canada will be competing five days in London. [url=http://www.nflwholesalecheapjerseysonline.com/]Cheap Jerseys NFL . Chad Owens caught three passes and returned four kicks to set pro footballs record for all-purpose yards in a season. Cheap Jerseys From China Online .Lazare, Que., rebounded from a shaky preliminary round to advance to the mens three-metre final at a FINA Grand Prix diving meet Friday.Well, it looks like the Raptors have re-started their campaign to bring Rudy Gay to Toronto. According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Raptors "have definitively decided to make a real run at Gay." This is the second time in under a year that Torontos intentions to pursue Gay have leaked (the first time was leading up to the 2012 NBA Draft) and until Gay is moved somewhere, it likely wont be the last. The appeal of Gay on paper is obvious: hes an athletic specimen with a sweet-looking jumper and an ability to pour points on an opposing team. For a Raptors club that is still looking for a go-to scorer on the wing, Gay would seem like an ideal candidate. There are pesky realities, though, that paint a less rosy picture. First of all, Gay is on the trading block because he is having a sub-par year, posting six-year lows in points per game (17.8) and PER (14.9) and career-lows in standard field goal percentage (.408) as well as true shooting percentage (.484). Add this to the fact that Gay has never been known for his commitment to defence and the need to acquire Gay wanes just a little. More pressing than stats, however, is money. Gay is slated to earn $16.5 million this season and $37.2 million over the next two years. Thats a ton of money, especially under the new, harsher conditions of the current CBA. That figure would serve as a significant obstacle for the Raptors going forward, especially if Gay continues to operate at levels below his career norms like he has been this season, and would serve as a sticking point with fans should the teams fortunes not improve measurable with his presence. Of course, any trade is weighed by the pieces that are exchanged. As ESPN is reporting, Torontos opening bid is Jose Calderons expiring $10.6 million contract and breakout power forward Ed Davis. According to ESPNs Trade Machine, that trade would be approved, though it would eat the roughly $3 million Toronto has remaining under the salary cap. Now, that would be Toronto trading two of their best players this season for a guy having arguably his worst professional season, as well as depleting two positions while overstuffing a third, so lets just say that if this trade were to go down as reported (and were a long way from that yet), it wouldnt be because it balanced Torontos roster any. There are fit issues whenn you talk about bringing Gay to the Raptors, as well.dddddddddddd Assuming no wing players are packaged into a trade, Toronto would be facing a wing rotation of Gay and DeMar DeRozan in the starting lineup and Terrence Ross, Landry Fields and Alan Anderson off the bench (with Mickael Pietrus sliding out of the rotation altogether). Thats not a great situation for Toronto to be facing. Right off the bat, you are facing duplication issues between Gay and DeRozan. Neither one is a great shooter (dont be deceived, Gay is not a great, or really even a good, three-point shooter), neither one excels at defence and neither one passes the ball well. These guys dont offset each others games so much as mirror them, except Gay does it at a greater than 50% financial premium. Behind them, you have to make a choice about the limited minutes available to Ross, Fields and Anderson, all three of whom have been playing well of late. Since Gay will command roughly 35 minutes per game (as opposed to the 22 that Pietrus is currently logging), that also considerably restricts the amount of time available to those players. How would Dwane Casey manage that situation? If we assume that Fields continues to play way out of position at power forward, that eases some of the logjam, but suffice it to say, its not a long-term solution. It should also be taken into account that Ross plays a style of basketball that actually evokes plenty of memories of Gay, except that Ross plays some defence. With Toronto fans tendency to latch onto young players and reserves, how long would it be before they turned on Gay if he appeared to be stifling Rosss development by eating up all of his minutes? This is one of those moves that catches the eye because it involves a name player being linked to the Toronto Raptors, but it doesnt take long before one realizes that the fit doesnt make sense. Back in the summer, when the Raptors were still building around Andrea Bargnani and were looking ahead to a free agency pursuit of Steve Nash, then a Rudy Gay trade made a certain amount of sense. Today, however, circumstances have changed considerably and unless the components of the trade are meaningfully altered, it doesnt make a whole lot of sense for Bryan Colangelo to crawl too far down this particular rabbit hole. ' ' '