Comments on last night's Game 1

Last night's Game 1 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees featured a classic pitching performance from veteran and former Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee, who threw a complete game "shutout" against the Bronx Bombers on 122 pitches. I put "shutout" in quotations because even though the Yankees managed to score one run in the 9th off Lee, the run was unearned due to a throwing error and did not really undermine the masterful work given to us by Lee. I mean, there were times where Lee just seemed unfazed by what must have been enormous pressure to win the opening game of the Fall Classic. He looked calm, cool, collected on the mound, making hitters swing and miss on pitches that were both inside and outside. He mixed and matched on hitters, taking command of the strike zone with such efficiency and precision that Yankee hitters remained baffled for nearly the entire game last night. It also appeared as if their inability to solve Lee throughout the course of the evening led to frustration and maybe even allowed some hitters to force swings a bit. I mean, how else do you explain Johnny Damon's pop fly to the pitcher's mound and the blind luck of Lee's behind-the-back grab of Cano's possible single up the middle. Cliff Lee was nearly perfect last night and if he keeps pitching like this and it comes down to a Game 7 where Lee has to pitch on 3 days rest, watch out because this may not be the year of #27 after all.

This is not to undermine the performance of CC Sabathia last night as well. Sabathia gave 7 strong innings of work and only made two mistakes throughout. Unfortunately, both mistakes were home runs to right field by Chase Utley, who took advantage of fastballs that were right down the middle of the plate. He was trying to throw inside to Utley and make him chase the inside pitch only to have himself miss completely and allow the Phillies to take a 2-0 lead. But other than that, Sabathia pitched just as well as Lee in my opinion. However, the Yankee bullpen did not look great last night. Phil Hughes still has not solved his postseason woes and the game was pretty much over when Raul Ibanez hit a 2RBI single through the hole to give the Phillies a 4-run lead. The way Lee was pitching last night, the Yankees were not coming back from that because they were not putting up any offensive numbers and when they did get hits off Lee, they would always be held in check.

Tonight's Game 2 is a pivotal matchup for the Yankees. The Phillies are sending Pedro Martinez to the mound primarily because of his history against the Yankees and because Hamels has struggled mightily this postseason so Charlie Manuel wanted to make him feel comfortable by giving him Game 3 at home. But the Yankees are not exactly sending up a strong opponent in A.J. Burnett, who has had his share of pitching problems this postseason even with Jose Molina behind the plate. I think James would argue for a strong offensive showing by both teams tonight, with both pitchers probably exiting the game after the 5th or 6th innings. I wouldn't be surprised if the game went into extra innings tonight with the final dividend being a 6-5 game. Hopefully, Joe Girardi will have some sense to place Jorge in the catcher's role tonight and make Burnett suck it up and throw the ball like he is supposed to. I understand you want Burnett comfortable, but these are grown men and this is the World Series. You throw the ball over the plate and you make your pitches, get the win, and notch your team closer to championship glory. That's how its done in the big leagues, or at least that's how it should be done. And I think it will happen tonight for the Yankees, but it probably won't be because of A.J. Burnett.

Game 2 Prediction: Yankees 6, Phillies 5 (11 innings)