Yankee Talk: World Series Edition – Burn-ing sensation

AJ cools Phils, Yanks even series

NEW YORK – All season long, the Yankees would sometimes hold their breath whenever AJ Burnett would take the mound.

Were they getting “Good AJ” or “Bad AJ”? The maddening swings in his performance left the team, fans and even the opponents wondering what they were going to get.

However, in the biggest game of the Yankees season, the “Good AJ” would play the starring role.

Seeking to prevent the Phillies from taking a commanding two game advantage, the right-hander took the ball and handcuffed them for seven innings, striking out nine as the Yankees evened the World Series with a 3-1 victory.

His mound opponent, long time Yankee villain Pedro Martinez was game, but at his age, could only do so much. Perhaps in another time, he could have dueled Burnett pitch-for-pitch, inning-for-inning.

Just not tonight.

Burnett cruised through the first five Philadelphia hitters, but with two outs, he gave up a ground-rule double to Raul Ibanez. Matt Stairs’ grounder went under the glove of Rodriguez into left for a run scoring single to give the Phillies the game’s first run.

Martinez channeled a man from his past early on, going into his reservoir to summon all the guile that made him one the baseball’s most dominant pitchers of his era.

Through the first three innings, Martinez held the Yankees scoreless, piling up four strikeouts.

However, in the bottom of the fourth, Mark Teixeira crushed a 1-0 pitch into the bullpen in right center for a game-tying homerun.

Both right-handers traded zeroes on the scoreboard as Burnett and Martinez kept both powerful offenses off-balance. While Burnett would handcuff the Phillies with his two-seam fastball that would comeback over the inner half of the plate, freezing hitters and a wicked curveball that could not be picked up.

Martinez, working with a less powerful right arm and verbally harassed (not as powerful as it was built up) from the 50,181 at Yankee Stadium, serenading him with the old chant “Who’s Your Daddy?” blocked out all of the distractions to his credit. Yankee hitters were unable to pick up on his changeup, leading to many weakly hit fly balls.

In the sixth inning, Martinez struck out both Teixeira and Rodriguez (0-for 4, 3 strikeouts) to begin, but then Hideki Matsui caught hold of a Martinez changeup and drove it over the short porch in right field to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

Only Matsui (2-for-3) appeared to have a beat on Martinez the entire night. He singled to right in his first at bat in the second and drew a walk in the fourth.

Matsui’s go-ahead homerun was all the support Burnett would need as he held the lead through seven innings. For his 108 pitch outing, Burnett gave up the lone run, four hits, walking two and striking out nine.

Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel would lift Martinez after giving up two successive singles to Jerry Hairston and Melky Cabrera to begin the bottom of the seventh, leaving to his usual chorus of boos as he pointed his fingers to the sky.

Chan Ho Park came on in relief and immediately gave up an RBI single to center from Jorge Posada to increase the Yankees lead to 3-1. That closed the night for Martinez, who in six plus innings gave up three runs, six hits, walked two and struck out eight in 107 pitches.

Yankees Manager Joe Girardi elected to have Mariano Rivera start the eighth in hopes of a two inning save. The Phillies got runners on first and second with Chase Utley at the plate who hit two homeruns in Game 1 off CC Sabathia.

Rivera’s cutter induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning and eliminate the threat. In the ninth, Rivera got the first two outs before Raul Ibanez doubled to bring the tying run to the plate. However, Stairs would strike out swinging to end the game on the closer’s 39th pitch of the evening.

The Yankees needed to win in order to avoid a 0-2 series hole. The Phillies got the split they sought out coming in to Yankee Stadium.

Now the series goes south, down the turnpike to Philadelphia for the next three games. Game 3 is Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Andy Pettitte gets the start for the Yankees against last year’s World Series MVP Cole Hamels.