Dodgers can’t decipher Phillies’ Cliff Lee in 3-1 loss

Reporting from Philadelphia

The Dodgers’ reinforcements showed up Monday at Citizens Bank Park.

But so did Cliff Lee.

Lee negated whatever advantage the Dodgers gained by activating three players from the disabled list and promoting top prospect Dee Gordon, throwing seven scoreless innings in a 3-1 victory for the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Dodgers, who had scored 20 runs in their previous two games and 44 in their previous seven, looked the way they have for most of the season and were 0 for 4 with men in scoring position. Their run was scored in the ninth inning by the fleet-footed Gordon, who made his major league debut as a pinch-runner.

“He knows what he’s doing, that’s for sure,” Manager Don Mattingly said of Lee. “He didn’t get that kind of status without being able to make pitches and get out of jams.”

The Dodgers will face similar obstacles for the remainder of the series. The Phillies will start Roy Oswalt on Tuesday and Cole Hamels on Wednesday.

Lee’s mastery Monday night, combined with what the Dodgers thought were erroneous strike calls by umpire Mark Carlson, resulted in considerable frustration.

Casey Blake offered Carlson his opinion and was thrown out of the game in the sixth inning. Blake, who played alongside Lee with the Cleveland Indians, struck out looking in the fourth and sixth innings.

“Cliff’s a good pitcher,” Blake said. “He’s a friend of mine. You don’t want him to get the better of you. When you have a guy helping him out, it makes it even harder.”

Blake said he didn’t curse at Carlson but acknowledged that the umpire told him to be quiet several times.

“I usually don’t get so fired up over balls and strikes,” Blake said. “If I come in here and I look at the film and the film said I was wrong, I’ll be the first to say, ‘I didn’t see that pitch real well.’ ”

Blake said he saw videos of his at-bats and that his opinion didn’t change.

With the left-handed Lee on the mound and the Dodgers coming off a three-game series played in hot and humid Cincinnati, Mattingly decided to rest the left-handed-hitting Andre Ethier and James Loney.

Marcus Thames and Juan Uribe, who were activated before the game, batted in the the middle of the lineup. Thames batted third and Uribe fifth. Even though Thames began the game with 15 strikeouts in 36 at-bats against Lee, he had hit three home runs against him. Mattingly said he thought that by batting Thames in front of Matt Kemp, Thames would see better pitches to hit.

Thames was 0 for 4.

Twice, he batted with Jamey Carroll and Aaron Miles on base. Both times he failed to drive them in, grounding into a double play in the first inning and striking out in the fifth.

Thames, who was sidelined for more than a month because of a strained quadriceps, said he was frustrated.

“You want to do something to help the team,” Thames said. “If you’re not frustrated you’re not getting them in, you shouldn’t be out there.”

Uribe was two for four.

The other player who was activated, right-hander Blake Hawksworth, pitched a scoreless seventh inning.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com