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Lee goes for 20th win vs. White Sox

Sep 1, 2008 - 2:14 PM CHI WHITE SOX (77-59) at CLEVELAND (65-70), 7:05pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- During the last three seasons, the American League has seen just one pitcher reach the 20-win mark. On Monday night in Cleveland, Cliff Lee will try to become the second.

Lee (19-2, 2.43 ERA), whose career season has made him the frontrunner in the American League Cy Young race, goes for his 20th win as the Cleveland Indians host the Chicago White Sox to kick off a three-game series. No pitcher from either league reached the plateau in 2006 and only Josh Beckett of the Boston Red Sox reached it last year.

The Indians had their 10-game winning streak snapped this weekend, as they were swept at home by the lowly Seattle Mariners. Now on a three-game skid - their longest losing streak since the All-Star break - they send their best bet to the mound on Monday. Lee has been as close to a sure thing as there's been in the major leagues this season.

The lanky, 6-3 southpaw won all five of his starts in August - surrendering a grand total of eight runs between them - and is unbeaten since July 6. With a chance to get in five or even six more starts before the end of the season, has an outside shot at reaching 24 wins, which would be the most in the American League since the Oakland Athletics' Bob Welch won 27 in 1990.

While the Indians are out of the playoff race, they can still play spoiler for the White Sox, who are in the midst of a fight with the Minnesota Twins (77-60) for supremacy in the American League Central. The White Sox put a stop to their own three-game skid on Sunday with a 4-2 triumph over the Red Sox but lead the division by just a half-game over the Twins.

Should they fall to Lee and the Indians on Monday, the White Sox would fall into a dead heat. Minnesota has the day off on Monday.

Chicago will send fellow lefthander Clayton Richard (2-2, 6.33) to the mound, two days after the 6-5 rookie tossed one inning in relief in an 8-2 loss to Boston on Saturday. This will be Richard's sixth career start, and he's coming off strong showings in each of his last two. He threw six shutout innings in a 5-0 win over Seattle on August 19, then followed that up with his second win in a row six days later, giving up three runs and six hits over six innings of a 4-3 victory against Baltimore.