When the New York Yankees secured their 27th World Series title with a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, it was eight years to the day that Luis Gonzalez delivered a broken-bat single off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2001 Fall Classic. That hit gave the underdog Arizona Diamondbacks the championship, but last night, the future Hall of Fame closer was on the mound for the final out of the baseball season, as the Yankees won their first World Series in nine years.

It was the fourth time Rivera had closed out a Series-clinching victory for New York. Although Rivera worked 5.1 scoreless innings against the Phillies, the rest of the Yankees pitching staff had given up 11 home runs, 23 extra-base hits and a lofty .464 slugging percentage in the six-game affair. Surprisingly, Philadelphia posted better power numbers across the board than New York, but Rivera’s teammates repeatedly came through with the big hit in key situations.

The Yankees topped the Phillies by batting .302 with runners in scoring position, driving in 21 runs in 43 at-bats. World Series MVP Hideki Matsui was 3-for-3 with four RBIs in those situations. He tied a major league record with six RBIs in Wednesday’s Game 6, delivering a two-run homer in the second inning, a two-out two-run single in the third, and a two-run double in the fifth. If it wasn’t already a perfect night for Matsui, only a two-run triple could have made it better. His Game 6 performance matched the six RBIs recorded by long-time Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson in Game 3 of the 1960 World Series.

Matsui wasn’t the only Yankee who delivered in the clutch. Jorge Posada was 3-for-7 with a team-leading five RBIs with RISP. Johnny Damon was 2-for-6 with four ribbies in those situations, though he will be remembered most for stealing both second and third base on the same play in Game 4.

Leading off the ninth inning in Philadelphia, with the score tied 4-4, Damon prevailed in a remarkable nine-pitch at-bat by singling off Phillies closer Brad Lidge. With Mark Teixeira at the plate and the Phillies playing an exaggerated shift to the right side, Damon stole second base and kept running when he saw no one was positioned to cover third.

Perhaps Lidge was rattled by Damon’s rare double steal, as he then hit Teixeira with a pitch. Alex Rodriguez followed with a two-run double, and the Yankees went up three games to one with a 7-4 victory.

That ninth inning in Game 4 was a turning point in the Series. The Yankees had held a 4-2 lead, but Chase Utley narrowed the deficit to one with a seventh-inning homer. When Pedro Feliz tied the game with an eighth-inning blast off Joba Chamberlain, the Phillies were positioned to tie the Series with Game 5 also in Philadelphia.

The Phillies rebounded to stay alive in Game 5, but they were 0-for-6 with RISP and stranded 13 runners in Wednesday’s final game. Despite a record-tying five World Series home runs from Utley, they weren’t able to buck a recent trend that they managed to overcome a year ago.

Since 1982, the team with home-field advantage has won 21 of 27 World Series. Last year’s Phillies were one of the six clubs to overcome their opponent’s home-field advantage in this stretch. The others were the 1984 Tigers, 1992 Blue Jays, 1999 Yankees, 2003 Marlins and 2006 Cardinals.

As talented as the 2009 Yankees were, winning twice at Yankee Stadium to close out the season was too much to ask of the Phillies. And history wasn’t on their side in that regard, either. Clinching a World Series title on the road in a sixth or seventh game has been nearly impossible since the Dodgers won Game 6 and the World Series at Yankee Stadium in 1981. Since then, the home team has posted a 19-3 record in Games 6 and 7.

That’s why the All-Star Game shouldn’t determine home-field advantage in October. Still, the Phillies lost the World Series to the Yankees for other reasons.

The top two hitters in their lineup batted .200 and scored only six runs. Cleanup man Ryan Howard didn’t produce and the Phillies as a team failed to hit in the clutch. On top of that, the pitching staff struggled in the biggest games of the year. The rotation looked like a difference-maker going into the playoffs, but it posted a 5.20 ERA against the Yankees. The bullpen, with a 5.74 ERA and an .844 opponent OPS, was even worse.

Posted by Thom Henninger at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If the New York Yankees win their first World Series title in nine years this week, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel will face an offseason of chatter about his decision to start Joe Blanton in Game 4. The Yankees turned to CC Sabathia on three days’ rest, but Manuel chose to go with Blanton and give staff ace Cliff Lee four days off before his Game 5 assignment.

The second-guessers are busy already, as Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan called it a “stupid decision.” He also took Lee to task for not pushing for the start when Manuel asked the left-hander if he was willing. Lee, who agreed to go if called upon, reportedly said it was his job to “pitch when Charlie wants me to pitch. . . I’m not going to try to second-guess or anything like that. I would have been happy either way.”

Passan’s response: “Aces don’t say that,” adding that “Lee should have walked into Manuel’s office, locked the door and said he wasn’t leaving until promised the Game 4 start.”

That’s not Lee’s personality. Unlike a lot of No. 1 starters, he’s not the fiery type. He also doesn’t have experience pitching on three days’ rest. He’s never done it, and that may have made Lee reluctant to force the issue. The game is loaded with confident and cocky players who would have pushed for the assignment, even if they had failed at it in the past, but Lee isn’t one of them.

Sure, Sabathia is now 5-3 with a 3.26 ERA and .232 opponent batting average in nine career starts on three days’ rest. The guy’s proven to be a workhorse who can handle short-rest gigs. He’s not the norm, however. Over the last five seasons combined, including playoffs, major league pitchers starting on less than four days’ rest have a losing record, a 5.02 ERA and .278 OBA. In this same span, those numbers are 3-4 with a 5.60 ERA and .278 OBA in the postseason.

It’s a clash of old school vs. new school. The old school approach says that under the circumstances, the ace should step up. If he’s hurt, rub some dirt on it. If he’s tired, get over it and give your team the win it needs. The numbers, though, demonstrate the importance of four days off for starters.

Despite the ugly numbers, Passan notes that most of those short-rest starts have gone reasonably well. That’s not altogether surprising, as it’s usually the best starters who get called on to pitch on short rest in October. Yet, the overall numbers suggest the best are compromised and the chance of a disastrous outing by a staff ace multiplies. Plus, Manuel was in the dugout a year ago, when Blanton gave the Phillies three solid outings in the postseason and was masterful in winning last year’s World Series Game 4.

Should Manuel have changed his mind and turned to Lee after the Phillies lost Game 3 at home? Maybe. On the other hand, if Brad Lidge had recorded the final out of the ninth inning last night before the Yankees rallied for three runs, Manuel’s decision might look like a winner today.

Posted by Thom Henninger at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A year ago, the Philadelphia Phillies returned home after splitting the first two games of the World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Phillies scratched for a run in the bottom of the ninth to claim a one-run victory in Game 3, then won two more at home to win a five-game affair.

The Phillies didn’t repeat their Game 3 success last night, as Cole Hamels struggled with command again in an 8-5 loss to the New York Yankees. History tells us it’s a pivotal loss.

Teams have split the first two games of a best-of-seven World Series 51 times prior to this fall’s Yankees-Phillies matchup. The winner of Game 3 has prevailed in 36 -- or 71 percent -- of those 51 World Series.

Tonight’s Game 4 looks to favor the Yankees, as they send CC Sabathia to the mound against Philadelphia’s Joe Blanton. New York manager Joe Girardi is turning to his Game 1 starter on three days’ rest, while Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel has committed to using four starters in the Series and calls on Blanton.

Blanton was successful in Game 4 a year ago, working six innings of a 10-2 victory over the Rays. On Sunday night he faces the dangerous Yankees, a team he has never defeated in four career starts as a member of the Oakland Athletics.

Sabathia is 5-3 with a 3.16 ERA in eight career starts following three days off. Opponents have batted just .228 against him in those outings. Two of those starts have been in the postseason, and they include eight solid innings against the Angels in Game 4 of the ALCS on Oct. 20. The Yankees took a three-games-to-one lead with Sabathia holding the Angels to five hits and a single run in eight innings of a 10-1 victory.

The Yankees southpaw has given up just five earned runs in four postseason starts this fall. The only time he has given up more than a single earned run or taken a loss was World Series Game 1 on Wednesday, when he was touched for two solo homers by Chase Utley.

Hamels’ loss in Game 3 may have Manuel second-guessing whether to stick with Blanton tonight. His Game 1 starter Cliff Lee could be used on three days’ rest, something the left-hander has never done in his big league career.

Saturday’s loss was just the second postseason defeat at home since the Phillies started their push to the World Series title a year ago. They are now 11-2 at Citizens Bank Park in this span, with the only other loss coming against Colorado in Game 2 of this year’s NLDS.

The Phillies can’t afford to lose two in a row before the home crowd, or their season will be all but finished. Not only do they need a strong outing from Blanton, they need Ryan Howard to break out of his funk.

Howard and Alex Rodriguez had been the big guns for their teams going into the World Series, and together they were 2-for-17 with 12 strikeouts in the first two games. A-Rod broke through with a two-run homer off a camera down the right-field line in Game 3, his first hit of the Series, while Howard was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. The Phillies slugger has now fanned in seven of his last eight at-bats.

Howard isn’t the only struggling Phillie. The top four hitters in the Philadelphia lineup -- Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Utley and Howard -- are collectively 8-for-45 (.178) in the Series. Rollins had the sole hit among the group in Game 3, and that isn’t going to cut it in Game 4.

Posted by Thom Henninger at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)