Yankees Even The Series At One

The New York Yankees evened the World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies at one behind AJ Burnett's tremendous effort. The final score in the Bronx was 3-1 Pinstripers. Pedro "Petey" Martinez was admirable in defeat, giving it all he had. He went seven innings and gave up six hits and three earned runs, walking two and striking out seven with his assortment of looping curveballs and other off-speed pitches. YES, he'll be back with some team (hopefully Philly) in 2010. What would we do without him? On the other hand, AJ Burnett took a lesson from Cliff Lee, who pitched a gem the night before. Lee spoke of confidence, of establishing your pitches and making the hitters BEWARE. Folks, that's just what he did, establishing his inside pinpoint fastball to induce swings and then using his deadly, and it IS deadly, curve to baffle the 2009 Red Machine (I couldn't call it BIG Red Machine). He was tremendous and went seven innings before Joe Girardi gave the ball to Mr. Mighty, Mo Rivera, who pitched the final two frames, with a little help from a double play, to seal the deal. Yankees 3 Phillies 1. Game three tomorrow night. Here's the Yankee starter, Mr. Burnett, on just about everything that helped him win last night...

“I knew it was a big game, it’s no lie,” Burnett said. “It was the biggest game I’ve ever thrown for this team. But at the same time, you can’t let that affect you and I tried not to let it affect me. Teammate CC Sabathia threw a great game on Wednesday night, you couldn’t ask for anything more. I knew I had a big task ahead of me with Pedro Martinez on the mound and I wanted to go out and pitch the best I could. After Game 1, I wanted to set the tone early and be aggressive."

He did just that and this 2009 World Series is knotted at one. That's what I was hoping for. The Phillies will face Pettitte and the Pinstripers will go against Cole Hamels. Andy was 14-8 with an ERA of 4.16 and Cole's record was a disapointing 10-11 with an ERA of 4.32 in the regular season.

Enjoy your non-baseball Friday and I'll leave you with a link to the World Series coverage from Sports Illustrated. Simply click on this post's title. That's it!

As always, be well. I'll have a full look at game three of this soon-to-be-seven game World Series first thing in the morning. I'll see you...soon.