will we ever win?

Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good

If you heard Yankees fans at all in the past week, you would have thought Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson would be on the field Wednesday night to help kick off another World Series victory. They weren't. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Cliff Lee was.

Lee was dominant in pitching a one-run complete game. The one run came in the ninth after Jimmy Rollins made the Phils' lone miscue in going for a double play that wasn't really in the cards. But by that time the Phillies had a 6-0 lead, and Lee was never in any real danger. He simply struck out the last two guys in the ninth to close it out.

C.C. Sabathia was very good for the Yankees as well, but he gave up two home runs to Chase Utley that pretty much sealed the game considering Lee's performance. Eleven out of the last 12 game 1 winners went on to win the Series, and the Phillies just took game 1 on the road, with their ace winning while the Yankees' ace lost. That's a big win.

Utley was the hitting hero early on, but the rest of the bats opened up on the vaunted Yankees bullpen. Good to see the long layoff meant nothing.

NOTES:
• Lee, and a lot of the Phillies actually, looked super relaxed on the field, like they were playing a spring training game. That can't make the Yankees feel good.
• Utley set a MLB record by reaching base in his 26th consecutive playoff game. He also got a lot of airtime for his Gordon Gekko look. Why does he care about hat hair while he's playing baseball? He doesn't have to go home like that. Whatever works for ya, I guess.
• I might have missed it, but I was happy to not see Kate Hudson at all when I was expecting it 37 times. I saw Kurt Russell, but Kurt's cool by me.
• A-Rod A-no show at the plate.
• Ron sent me this funny photo of Jay-Z. Can't think of a caption, so provide your own.


Pedro tomorrow. Should be interesting, especially as it's not a must-win for the Phils, so do the Yankees come out with guns blazing, or uptight?