For seven innings of Wednesday night’s opening game of the 2009 World Series, the hotly anticipated matchup of left-handed aces and former Cleveland Indians teammates lived up to its billing, but in the end there was just Cliff Lee.
Lee, who shutout the Rockies in the first postseason start of his career in Game One of this year’s NLDS and entered the game having allowed just two earned runs in 24 1/3 innings this postseason, was simply dominant. On a cold, wet night in the Bronx, Lee was quick, sharp, almost robotic in his efficiency, and seemed utterly indifferent to significance of the game.
In his first two innings of work he allowed just a Jorge Posada single and struck out four. After allowing another hit in the third, a two-out double by Derek Jeter, he struck out Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and Jorge Posada in order in the fourth. For both Teixeira and Rodriguez it was their second strikeout in as many at-bats against Lee.
The Yankees got the leadoff batter on in the fifth on a Hideki Matsui single, but he was promptly erased by an unusual double play on a sinking flare off the bat of Robinson Cano to Jimmy Rollins at shortstop. Rather than charge the ball to catch it chest-high, Rollins stayed back on the ball in an apparent attempt to snag the short hop and turn a conventional double play. After gloving the ball, Rollins did just that, stepping on second and firing to first, but Cano beat the throw. The trick was that Rollins actually caught the ball on the fly, thus his throw to first doubled off Matsui. It took the umpires a while to figure that out, but after huddling up they eventually got the call right.
Lee pitched around a Johnny Damon single in the seventh, then didn’t allow another baserunner until the ninth.
Meanwhile, CC Sabathia, after surviving a two-out bases-loaded jam in the first, nearly matched Lee, with two crucial exceptions. With two outs in the third, Chase Utley battled Sabathia for nine pitches. 
The last was a knee-high fastball that was supposed to be in, but drifted over the plate, allowing Utley to deposit it in the first few rows of the right-field box seats to give the Phillies an early 1-0 lead. The home run was a short-porch shot to be sure, but likely would have been out of the old Stadium as well.
Utley’s next at-bat came with one out in the sixth. Sabathia had retired every man he faced since Utley’s home run and got two quick called strikes on Utley, who then fouled off the third pitch. Sabathia’s fourth offering was a thigh-high fastball that was supposed to be inside, but drifted over the plate, allowing Utley to deposit it in the first few rows of the right-field bleachers, a no-doubter that gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead. Given Lee’s dominance and the fact that the Yankees were down to their last nine outs, that deficit felt much larger than it actually was.
As if to accentuate his command of the game, Lee got Johnny Damon to hit a badminton birdie back to the mound in the bottom of the sixth. Lee barely moved his feet to catch Damon’s floater. He simply stuck out his glove and made a casual, one-handed catch as if he was receiving a return throw from his catcher. The next inning, Jorge Posada hit a chopper to the first-base side of the mound. Rather than flip it to first base, Lee ran directly at Posada in a play reminiscent of the last out of the 2003 World Series, and rather than tag Posada on the chest or stomach with two hands, Lee gave the hot-headed Yankee catcher a roundhouse pat on the rear end to retire him. In the next frame, Robinson Cano led off with a hard hopper that Lee casually caught blindly behind his back. It was Cliff Lee’s night, the Yankees and the 50,207 fans in the stands were merely supporting players, and mild-mannered ones at that.
Other than Utley’s two homers, the Phillies managed just two hits against CC Sabathia, one of them a Ryan Howard double in the first inning, but they worked deep counts, drew three walks, and bounced the Yankee ace from the game after he threw 117 pitches in seven innings. That allowed the Phills to sink their teeth into the Yankees’ suddenly shaky middle relief corps.
Phil Hughes was the first lamb to the slaughter. He started the eighth by walking Jimmy Rollins on eight pitches and Shane Victorino on seven more before getting a quick hook. Damaso Marte came on and struck out Utley and got Howard to fly out, but David Robertson, in to face the righty Jason Werth, loaded the bases on a four-pitch walk, then gave up a two-run single to Raul Ibañez that doubled the Phillies’ lead. Brian Bruney, who hadn’t seen game action since the regular season, got two quick outs in the ninth, but Rollins reached on a slow roller that stopped short of Alex Rodriguez on the infield grass, and Victorino followed with an RBI single. Joe Girardi then turned to Phil Coke to face Utley and Howard. Co
ke fell behind Utley 3-1 before getting him to fly out, then Howard doubled into the right-field corner, plating Rollins to increase the lead to 6-0.
Those insurance runs were killers, particularly after Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon opened the ninth with singles off Lee that otherwise would have given the Yankees hope of yet another comeback. The shutout was lost when Rollins threw wild to first base trying to turn Mark Teixeira’s ensuing grounder into a double play, but Lee stopped the Yankees there by striking out Rodriguez and Posada on a total of eight pitches to give the Phillies a 6-1 win and an early 1-0 lead in the Series.
Not panicking, not worried. Lee was just dominant, nothing to be done.
If we lose to 72-year old Pedro tomorrow..then I will start to sulk!
Some comic relief to take the edge of this wretched Game One "performance"
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/10/highlights-from-the-jamie-mccourt-divorce-papers.html
Stuff happens. The Yankees will still win.
[3] It's strange..I was SO upset during the game, but feel strangely calm now..I really think we have a good shot tomorrow as there is no way in hell Pedor gets past the 6th inning. I'm not even worried about A-Rod and his 3 Ks..all the boys looked bad tonight.
i hated the game, but i LOVE this title.
similarly, i hate cliff lee, but i LOVE Cliff Burton (R.I.P.) !!!
UTerLEE unacceptable performance by our offense and bullpen.
let's hope for calm, cool, collected AJ (does he exist?) and that we destroy Petey!
LET'S GO YAN-KEES !! !!!
[4] amazing what a few pints of Guinness can do! ; )
[6] No Guinness at lunch time!! A fine eggplant-parmigiana sandwich did help a bit though :)
more comedy: did you know that Rick Reilly was voted National Sportswriter of the Year ELEVEN times? I mean, how is this possible? What am I missing about Reilly? I think he apallingly bad..I mean, like AWFUL. Very mysterious..
[5] Man, they are going to crush Pedro tomorrow, I have NO doubt.
[7] dude, don't tell RI, but i LOVE eggplant parm!!! (true story)
btw, i ended up picking up all FOUR late period Freddie Hubbard Blue Note cd's! i don't have any of 'em yet, but i should somewhat soon, and they're supposed to be good. 2 of 'em are 'dueling trumpets' with the always excellent Woody Shaw!
[8] i sure hope so. would do my heart very very good!
[9] My buddy is a HUGE Woody Shaw fan, he got me into his stuff a few years back. Didn't know he and Freddie recorded a duo album, very contrasting styles that could work well together..let me know!
I love Pedro for the entertainment value (and his prime years, what a pitcher!) but cmon..our lineup is NOT like the Dodgers, tonigh't stinkbomb excepted...
[10] woody shaw is indeed great! i didn't know they recorded together, either! there were two records - one on capitol, one on blue note. at some point, apparently, BN put out a rare 2cd edition that has both albums. i bought it tonight!
supposedly, it's not a trumpet 'battle', but more of a duo record. i'm looking forward to getting it, hearing it, and letting you know how it is!
i don't really love Pedro for anything. i just wanna beat his ass on the playing field tomorrow and demolish the philthies!!!
[11] This must be the one, right?
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wxfixqlgld6e
I really didn't know Freddie was still recording anything..er..."good" by the late 80s. All disco/smooth and then health problems by the early 90s..I would really like to hear this one.
No false confidence, I can't see Pedro lasting more than 5 innings..if he does, we may be in trouble..
[11] And this one,
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3xfoxqlgld6e
sounds great!
YEAH, those are both of 'em! i had no idea, either. and i learned about 'em both from AMG, as well. i can't wait to hear "Sandu", but the "Eternal Triangle" record is lined up to be outstanding!
it's really cool that Blue Note ended up reissuing this as a 2cd set and i'm super psyched to get it! i also have 2 other Hubbard solo BN cd's from that era coming, one of which, oddly, was NOT mentioned at all music guide. i stumbled upon it by accident. but, since it was Blue Note - and cheap! - i bought it. looking forward to hearing all this stuff, as well as completing my Freddie Hubbard BN collection! : )
[14] 30 more mins here, I got a free pass out tonight so am going to check out yet another jazz bar (this one in my neighborhood) that I only recently discovered. In classic Tokyo style, it has a wonderful name: "Jazz Bar What's".
You need to catalogue your collection and then send it to me online!
ya know, i'm pretty certain, but don't quote me on this - i think freddie may have been living in atlanta somewhat around the late 80's-early 90's. i also know at least 3 badass motherfuckers that got offered his gig, but turned it down. apparently, he was an ego infested cocksucker. he sure was a godlike trumpeter though!
carl allen, who played drums on Eternal Triangle, was also his business manager, at that time. he's a great NYC cat. his album The Pursuer, is absolutely incredible. complete class, worthy of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers type praise! i was fortunate to have that record and know, then see him live - and meet him! - at Penn State, when i was a student and involved with the PSU Jazz Club! : )
[16] Oh yeah, there are SO many nasty stories about Freddie going around, some of them must be true..I heard he was particularly mean to any younger trumpeters and female musicians..sad that so many geniuses are such jerks in their personal life.
[15] i have my Blue Note collection cataloged - alphabetical/chronological. ditto for my Heavy Metal cd's!!! but i don't have everything cataloged. i wish i did. my brother does...
i will send you the BN list, via email, in the coming months. let me knock off a bunch more titles i know i'm gonna be picking up and i'll forward it to you when i'm somewhat done...
that's a GREAT name for a jazz bar!
[17] it's true, man. hell, i've been disappointed a billion times, meeting and/or playing with my heroes/idols. on one hand, as a professional player, i can i understand it, on the other, it's just downright disappointing.
i'm not gonna judge Freddie. i'm just gonna respect and admire him, collect and study/enjoy his work. i'm sure you have Wayne Shorter's brilliant "The Soothsayer" album. i think it's on the title track, in the middle of Hubbard's solo, he improvises this one line that is soooo melodic, it could be a head of a tune, or the main theme off which to play "fours." it's just a little skipping line in thirds, but it is so brilliant and, to my ears, just stands out in the middle of his solo. i loves it!
[18] Nice, I'm already in awe of your collection!
There are so many cool names here, just on my street my local drinking spots are "Bottle Cafe", "Bar Do", "Bar Daily Vivo Stand", "Bar Annie", and "Bar W" (which only plays classical music, wonderfully relaxed place to have a drink.)
Have a good night, tomorrow AM we'll see that Score Truck guranteed!
[19] I love Wayne Shorter and LOVE that album. Will listen again for what you describe, Freddie was unmatched in those days, UNMATCHED!
cool bar names for all of 'em! i love the Classical themed bar.
Soothsayer is terrific. iirc, that Hubbard lick is around the 3:30 mark. could be 5 mins in though. if you listen closely to his solo, you'll hear it - it's like a melodic line that stands out, from the rest of the improvising.
man, i hope harder than anything that the Pinstriped Score Truck delivers tomorrow, then in the following 3 Yankee wins, totaling 4 in all, 27 for the franchise and thumb ring for the "fellowship"!!!
Well, how very calming to read the post-game Cliff Notes, and then the late-night Jazz Wrap.
And finding out that thelarmis loves eggplant parm helps to restore my faith in humanity.
Cliff Lee, Cliff Burton, Cliff Corcoran. Okay, two out of three ain't bad.
I can't frickin' sleep. What are the pitching matchups for the rest of the series?
Are we finally going to get some production up and down the line up?
[24] Pedro v AJ! Pettitte v Hamels! Then nobody knows.
Yes, we're going to get some production out of the line-up (and by the way, the Yankees did score 5 1/2 runs per game in the ALCS, so it's not as if the offense has been anemic).
However, you are not going to get a lot of sleep. Sorry. (I know how it feels.)
[25] The "problem" with the offense has been the way that the production has been so skewed with only a few players contributing consistently.
[5] Ditto with you on the title.
[24] [25] Sleep = overrated. There will be plenty of time to sleep later.
[25] Thank you for pointing out that the Yanks' offense has been far from dead, as as claimed last night. This team will score, of that I have no doubt.
[26] I'm sure william will jump into this at some point - but that's exactly what offenses do. Its rare to have every hitter doing well all the time; someone has got to make those 27 outs!
Oh, and it seems that 59% of people who respond to Boston.com polls about the World Serious are liars, nuts, or both. Sheesh.
Look, they don't call 'em the Philadelphia Clifflee's fer nuttin'.
Guy was staring down and dropping Yankee hitters like goats in that new Clooney movie.
I went to bed thinking Lee and Utley wouldn't leave the field overnight, but would throw long-toss in the outfield, do a couple hundred situps in the bleachers, a little light jogging and repetitive sprints in the cold, steady rain -- all the while chomping cigars, and laughing maniacally like DeNiro in Cape Fear, planning even more awesome feats of destruction for Game 2.
I don't think the most peculiar muppet, Pedro is going tonight. I think Cliff Lee has enough left in the tank to finish this Series.
Tonight I suggest the Yankees return to using wood bats, and ditch those tubular ziplock bags of cold oatmeal they've been swinging.
Tonight I suggest AJ Burnett, the Pie Unit, remembers to screw his head firmly onto his shoulders.
Tonight I suggest our young jittery relievers, I dunno, pitch calmer and better? I don't have any clever suggestions for our middle relief corps - but I'm sending them the bill for the cleaning of my living room rug. My insurance should cover the damage to my scalp watching them work, but maybe not since it's self inflicted? Please advise..
Watched the replay this evening on tv. Lee was ridiculous. The call on Cano's non-swing was disgraceful, not even close. Our bullpen was a shambles, only Marte (!) looked good.
Pedro out by the 5th tomorrow, we score 3 more off their pen. Yanks win 8-4. Semi-good AJ will be enough. And now off to slumber.. more jazz chat tomorrow RIYank!
[28] Its rare to have every hitter doing well all the time;
Maybe, but (I'm not sure if ESPN.com has included last night's games):
Swisher .114 .205 .143 .348
Teix .186 .250 .279 .529
Cano .211 .318 .342 .660
Damon .239 .271 .391 .662
Matsui .242 .390 .364 .754
Is it really that rare to have 4/5 of this potent lineup suck so hard?
[31] Make that 5/9.
I'm not sure I get it.
The Yanks scored 5 1/2 runs per game in the ALCS. That's plenty of runs, especially against good pitching.
Sometimes you score by everyone OPSing .790. Sometimes you score with a very skewed distribution of contribution (channeling my inner Jesse Jackson). The Score Truck comes in pickup and 18 versions, you never know what it's going to look like.
[33] My point is as that as the team plays more postseason games, it becomes harder and harder for the same three players to carry such a disproportionate share of the load.
To further underscore the point, Alex has been beyond great (.389 .500 .861 1.361), basically carrying this team on his back. Will that continue?
Don't get me wrong, I think the Yankees will win this series, but guys like Teix and Cano need to hit, and I think they will.
Yes. Because it is unlikely that those three players will continue to hit that well.
But it is also unlikely that the five stinkers will continue to stink.
Reflecting back on the game last night, I think I feel exactly the same as I did when it was over. Excruciating to watch, but in the end it is what it is. It's not the kind of loss that is very telling about the team because the opposition really dictated everything about it, at least insofar as the nitty-gritty of why the Yankees lost - Sabathia gave up more than zero runs, Lee didn't.
The worrisome parts are all the "what ifs" and signs of things potentially to come. Like what if Sabathia matched Lee 0 for 0 through his seven innings? Would Phil Hughes have come in and thrown it all away anyway? Hughes is downright scary now.
And of course the sickeningly familiar look of A Rod's at-bats. Sure, the whole team had a hard time but there was something ominous about Rodriguez's strike outs.
The Yankee hitters that looked bad seemed to be coming around in the latter gamesof the ALCS, for the most part, but every single batter will need to kick some ass if A Rod is back to his old style. It would be ironic though: He seemed to produce at an incredible rate because he relaxed and didn't feel like he had to account for the entire offense. As a result, he accounted for the entire offense. Could it be that puts him back at square one, and is tight as Nick Swisher? (Who'da thunk that would ever be apt?)
Reflecting back on the game last night, I think I feel exactly the same as I did when it was over. Excruciating to watch, but in the end it is what it is. It's not the kind of loss that is very telling about the team because the opposition really dictated everything about it, at least insofar as the nitty-gritty of why the Yankees lost - Sabathia gave up more than zero runs, Lee didn't.
The worrisome parts are all the "what ifs" and signs of things potentially to come. Like what if Sabathia matched Lee 0 for 0 through his seven innings? Would Phil Hughes have come in and thrown it all away anyway? Hughes is downright scary now.
And of course the sickeningly familiar look of A Rod's at-bats. Sure, the whole team had a hard time but there was something ominous about Rodriguez's strike outs.
The Yankee hitters that looked bad seemed to be coming around in the latter gamesof the ALCS, for the most part, but every single batter will need to kick some ass if A Rod is back to his old style. It would be ironic though: He seemed to produce at an incredible rate because he relaxed and didn't feel like he had to account for the entire offense. As a result, he accounted for the entire offense. Could it be that puts him back at square one, and is tight as Nick Swisher? (Who'da thunk that would ever be apt?)
But it is also unlikely that the five stinkers will continue to stink.
I agree. Singleton talked about sitting Swisher for Gardner in the postgame, but although I wanted to do that in Game 6, I don't want to do that right now.
I'm gonna use all my powers of self restraint to not make a joke about a bus falling on Cliff Lee.
What can ya say? Most nights you take 7 IP, 2 ER from any of your starters...but with Lee pitching like that, forget about it. I know some were saying the Yankees were missing hittable pitches, I don't know how much I buy that. This is a guy that has been on another planet for the better part of 2 years, shut us plenty of times when he was with Cleveland, and has been on a Hershiser-like run the past month.
Go out tonight, punish Petey, send this thing to Philly 1-1 and I'll be happy. I really did not anticipate going up 2-0 on this team, so if we're tied after 2 I can live with it.
not worried about the bats. the bridge to Mo is a legitimate concern, but Yanks will tie it tonight. I know this to be true.
Lee was just too good last night, nothing you can do about that. Here's how I see the rest of the series going: beat up Pedro tonight, easy win. The Yanks find a way to win 2 out of 3 in Philly, then Pettitte finishes it out with another clincher in game 6.
[42] Or look at it this way: they split CC's first two starts and AJ's two starts. Pettitte beats Hamels, then they're up 3-2 coming home for the last two with CC lurking for Game Seven.
[41] I don't know how you can not be worried about the bats, but God bless.
[44] c'mon, weeping. if we didn't have faith in our hitters we'd be Mets fans. they'll bust out the lumber tonignt.
[45] They'd jolly well better.
Yanks will do a number on Petey tonight. Hey, does anybody know who the Phillies gave Cleveland for Lee? For the Indians sake, it better have been a young Ford and Mantle...
I'm just hoping that last night's crapfest fires these boys up something fierce. Lee was an animal. I don't know if I admire the guy or want to punch his lights out for being so non-chalant about the way he pitched and the way his teammates played.
And I agree with The Hawk about A Rod. I was having seriously horiffic flashbacks of his inability to put the wood to it during the game.
Good AJ needs to kick suck ass AJ to the curb for the rest of the serious. Seriously. And I hope Pedro gets the pounding of his life tonight. Score truck please run over him...multiple times.