career-high 12 hits in the 5–4 defeat. Lee said he took "full responsibility" for the loss, telling reporters, "They were hitting good pitches. They were hitting bad pitches. They were hitting." Difficulties with run support: 2012–2013 Oswalt was replaced with Vance Worley for the Phillies' 2012 starting rotation, but the Four Aces remained otherwise intact, with Lee as the No. 2 starter behind Halladay. Although Lee personally pitched well, he struggled to win games through the first half of the 2012 season, beginning with his first start, when he pitched 10 innings but took the loss in a 1–0 defeat to the San Francisco Giants. Some of his struggles came from poor run support, as the otherwise productive Phillies offense did not hit when he was on the mound. He also faced pitch-count difficulties for the first time in his Philadelphia career: in one outing against the Boston Red Sox, Lee had thrown 66 pitches by the end of the third inning, mostly from foul balls. Both Lee and Manuel expressed confusion over Lee's struggles, and by the end of June, though was healthy and pitching well, he was allowing nine hits per nine innings. His first win of the season did not come until July 4, his last start before the All-Star break, when he allowed two runs on nine hits in eight innings of the Phillies' 9–2 win over the New York Mets. All nine of the Phillies' runs came in the final three innings of the game. His run of 13 starts without a win was the longest of any Cy Young winner since Greg Maddux in 2008. Through those 13 starts, Lee posted a 0–5 record, and a difficult June in which he allowed 20 runs in innings had lifted him from a 2.92 to 4.13 ERA. He seemed to recover through August and September, recording the 1,500th strikeout of his MLB career, also against the Mets, on September 17. Despite finishing the season with a 3.16 ERA, 207 strikeouts and a 7.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 211 innings, Lee went only 6–9 in his 30 starts, becoming the first pitcher in history to win fewer than eight games with 200 or more strikeouts and a 3.20 or below ERA. Despite Lee's hopes that the team would "win this division, make the post-season, and win the World Series", the Phillies missed the playoffs in 2012 with a