Phillies befuddle Bombers in Game 1

By BOB KLAPISCH
BERGEN COUNTY RECORD COLUMNIST
http://www.northjersey.com/sports
October 29, 2009

NEW YORK – The ballpark couldn’t have emptied any faster, turning Sinatra’s lyrics into an eerie echo. “New York, New York” blasted away, full volume, but it couldn’t drown out the Yankees’ shock after Game 1 of the World Series.

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Cliff Lee #34 of the Philadelphia Phillies throws a pitch against the New York Yankees in Game One of the 2009 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium on October 28, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The Bombers didn’t just lose to the Phillies, 6-1, Wednesday night, they were embarrassed by the Phillies in front a national television audience that was expecting a full-blown war. Instead, baseball’s most dominant offensive machine was shut down – no, obliterated – by Cliff Lee’s monster curveball, which accounted for 10 strikeouts and not a single earned run.

Say what you want about the Phillies – they’re loud, they talk too much, they ran through an inferior league – but they more than backed it up against the Yankees. Lee even managed to rub it in the Bombers’ face, tagging out Jorge Posada with a disdainful pat on the rump in the seventh inning, and catching Johnny Damon’s half pop-up to the mound near his hip in the sixth.

The left-hander insisted, “I try to not be cocky,” but eventually admitted, “after the first three or four innings, I knew it was going to be a good day. I knew I had my stuff.”

Lee’s complete-game performance was highlighted by three key factors: the Yankees were never comfortable with the huge, sweeping arc of his overhand curveball. He toyed with the middle of the lineup, striking out Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez five times.

Second, Lee never gave the Yankees a chance to exploit bad counts. Of his 122 pitches, 80 were strikes – he didn’t walk anyone.

And most importantly, Lee deflated the Yankees almost instantly, striking out four of the first six batters he faced. That left a dark imprint on the Bombers, so much that Joe Girardi was left grasping for a way to console his team, if not himself.

“One thing I know is that [Lee] can’t pitch every day,” the manager said, glossing over the possibility that Lee might otherwise start three times in this Series. That’s terrible news for the Yankees, who now face a must-win scenario against Pedro Martinez, who has the brains and the guts to take down the Bombers, if not the arm.

Suddenly it’ll be up to A.J. Burnett to shut down the Phillies, having watched CC Sabathia fail. That was the biggest shock of all for the Bombers, seeing their ace humbled not just once, but twice, by Chase Utley, who hit dramatic home runs in back to back at-bats in the third and sixth innings.

Utley turned around Sabathia’s heat with incredible ease – blistering a 95-mph fastball over the wall in right. The next time up, Sabathia ratcheted up the velocity, unleashing a 96-mph heater. Utley dented that one, too, launching it deep to right-center.

That gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead, but given how well Lee was throwing, the deficit might as well have been 20 runs. The team that had come back from behind 51 times in the regular season and five more times in the playoffs had no shot – none.

The pressing question is what this means to the Yankees’ presumed road to a world championship. They’d never expected to be beaten so easily be the Phillies. They never considered that, sooner or later, they’d run into a team that wouldn’t make foolish mistakes on the base paths or call on relievers (like Joe Nathan or Brian Fuentes) who were afraid of the pinstripes.

NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Chase Utley #26 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning against C.C. Sabathia #52 of the New York Yankees in Game One of the 2009 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium on October 28, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

The Yankees found out there’s no Nick Punto or Vlad Guerrero in the World Series. They found out their own bullpen is less dependable than ever – and that’s especially true of Phil Hughes, who walked the only two batters he faced in the eighth inning and was booed thickly by the Stadium crowd.

The Yankees found out that the Phillies were capable of manufacturing four add-on runs in the eighth and ninth innings, which not only sealed Lee’s victory but demoralized the Yankees, who hadn’t lost a postseason game at home this month.

“We definitely don’t like this situation we’re in,” said Damon. “We can’t lose three more when we’re shooting to win four.”

Jorge Posada was even more candid.

“I can’t really live here [in the aftermath of the loss],” he said. “We have to move on.”

The Yankees have no choice, they’ll have to find a way to cope with Pedro’s change-up, his moxie, his obvious lack of fear. We’ll know soon enough if Burnett has the stomach for this fight.

But before they move on, the Yankees will have to purge themselves of the realization that Phillies were smarter than them, too, and that’s what really hurt. Even the cool, calculating Hideki Matsui was no match for the super-deke that Rollins pulled in the fifth inning.

It started when Matsui, who’d led off with a single to center, was fooled into thinking Rollins was turning a double play on a ball hit by Robinson Cano.

Lee made it all possible, blistering Cano over the inside corner with a power fastball. Cano lifted a benign flare towards short, where it appeared Rollins would field it on a short hop. Matsui, believing a double play was about to be launched by the Phillies’ defense, left the base and took two steps towards second.

But at the last moment, just as it appeared Rollins was going to let the ball drop in front of him, he caught it clean, a half-inch from the ground. Rollins pretended the ball had bounced, stepping on second and firing to first to complete the faux double play, which had Matsui so confused he stood frozen – two feet off the bag, doubled up as Rollins’ throw landed in Ryan Howard’s glove.

The umpires called everyone out after a brief conference, as Matsui, properly dazed, trudged off the field. Later, Charlie Manuel smiled and said, “that was a pretty good deke.”

The manager knew it was the perfect way to bookmark a nice night for the National League champs. Actually it was better than that for the Phillies: they’d made the Yankees blink first in this war of the worlds.