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Aug 29, 2009 - 5:46 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Atlanta (67-60) at Philadelphia (73-52), 7:05 p.m. EDT

The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Cliff Lee hoping he could re-establish himself as one of the premier pitchers in baseball. Winning all of his starts since the deal certainly hasn't left much doubt.

The left-hander will try to win his sixth consecutive start for the NL East leaders Saturday night when they host the Atlanta Braves.

Prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, the Phillies (74-52) were in the market for a bona fide ace and appeared close to landing Toronto's Roy Halladay. However, the move never materialized and Philadelphia instead put together a six-player deal with Cleveland that sent Lee (5-0, 0.68 ERA) to the reigning World Series champions.

Lee had been having a tough time duplicating his breakout season of 2008, when he was a career-best 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA and beat out Halladay for the AL Cy Young Award. This season, he was 7-9 with a 3.14 ERA for the struggling Indians, but won his final three starts with them while posting a 1.44 ERA and throwing two complete games.

Lee has carried that momentum into the NL, going the distance twice and putting himself in position to extend his winning streak to nine. He won a career-high 11 straight decisions over 12 outings July 11-Sept. 12 last year.

"It was already an unbelievable team before I got here. That's made it easy for me," Lee said of the Phillies. "It's been a pretty smooth transition."

Lee kept his current winning streak intact Monday, yielding two unearned runs in seven innings of a 6-2 victory at New York.

"He makes us real good," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We've got some top-notch left-handed pitchers. I kind of like that. Definitely the best rotation that we've had since I've been here."

Lee will now get only his second start against Atlanta (67-61) after the Phillies won 4-2 on Friday in the opener of this three-game series. He beat the Braves in a 4-2 win for Cleveland on June 18, 2004.

Philadelphia has a comfortable eight-game lead in the East over Atlanta and Florida.

Ryan Howard helped widen that gap Friday, hitting two homers and driving in three runs. The All-Star first baseman is batting .333 with 11 home runs and 29 RBIs in his last 15 games, increasing his season home run total to 37. He owns a .339 lifetime average with 29 homers and 82 RBIs in 79 games against Atlanta.

"It makes you feel good when he starts hitting," Manuel said. "He's amazing. He'll take two swings and not look too good, then all of a sudden he stays on a pitch and smokes it out of the yard. He's a tremendous hitter."

Losers of three of their last four, the Braves are 4 1/2 games behind wild card-leading Colorado. They'll send Derek Lowe (12-8, 4.48) to the mound Saturday as he tries to rebound from a pair of subpar outings.

The right-handed sinkerballer allowed five runs - three earned - and nine hits in five innings while not getting a decision in a 7-5 win over Florida on Sunday. That came five days after he was tagged for eight runs and 11 hits in 3 2-3 innings of a 9-4 loss at New York.

Lowe had been 5-0 with a 2.91 ERA in his seven prior starts.

"I thought Lowe pitched much better than the linescore showed," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said following Sunday's victory.

The two-time All-Star is 5-0 with a 2.24 ERA in his last eight starts against the Phillies, including a 3-0 mark and 1.61 ERA in four starts at Citizens Bank Park.