NEW YORK | The New York Yankees arrived Thursday night for Game 2 of the World Series perilously close to a must-win situation. And with the variables that had to line up for them to even their series with the Philadelphia Phillies at a game apiece, it was worth asking whether they could pull it off.
They had to beat old nemesis Pedro Martinez, rejuvenated as a second-half pickup and coming off one of his finest postseason starts in the National League Championship Series. They had to hope a lineup that included a pair of reserves could keep up with a fierce Phillies attack. And they had to count on starter A.J. Burnett at least to keep the game close.
And they got it all.
Riding a stellar start from Burnett and a just-good-enough performance against Martinez, the Yankees beat the Phillies 3-1, evening the World Series at a game apiece as it shifts to Philadelphia. New York avoided the harrowing prospect of needing to beat the Phillies twice at home, where Philadelphia has lost once in the last two postseasons.
“It’s the biggest game I’ve ever thrown in,” Burnett said. “But at the same time, you can’t let that affect you. I knew I had a task ahead of me with Pedro on the mound, and I just wanted to go with him pitch-for-pitch and do the best I could.”
Burnett allowed one run in seven innings, with Mariano Rivera working two innings for the save as the Yankees sneaked three runs across the plate against Martinez.
The “Who’s Your Daddy?” chants for Martinez were only half-hearted at best all night, and Martinez, who turned 38 on Sunday, provided no more fodder for them. His decaffeinated repertoire still netted eight strikeouts, with one hitter after another falling forward at Martinez’s 71-mph curveball.
It was tough to say either of the homers he gave up were mistakes, either; Mark Teixeira reached across the plate and pulled a change-up into the Yankees’ bullpen to tie the game in the fourth inning, and Hideki Matsui golfed a low curveball out to right in the sixth.
“It seems like [Teixeira] hit a good pitch,” Martinez said. “Matsui, I was disappointed because it seems like the pitch probably wasn’t the one I would have chosen if I was to think again. I was just into a groove and flipped a curveball there and kind of paid for it.”
New York added another run when Phillies manager Charlie Manuel put Martinez back in the game for the seventh with 99 pitches. It could have been more, but after Derek Jeter curiously tried a two-strike sacrifice bunt with runners on first and second, Johnny Damon hit a hard liner at first baseman Ryan Howard.
First-base umpire Brian Gorman ruled Howard caught the ball and ruled Damon out. Jorge Posada, who had run to second, stood puzzled at second base as Jimmy Rollins tagged him out to complete a double play. While the six-man umpire crew conferred after the inning, television replays showed the ball bounced once before Howard caught it.
The call stood amid a torrent of boos and obscene chants. But even without all that, the two homers would have been enough to stake the Yankees to a lead after seven innings. For that, they had Burnett to thank.
The right-hander, who signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Yankees before the season, hardly delivered on the investment, winning 13 games and posting a 4.04 ERA. He had been even less impressive in the postseason with a 5.84 ERA in the American League Championship Series thanks to a Game 5 implosion against the Angels.
But Burnett was as sharp as the Yankees needed him to be Thursday night. He threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 26 hitters he faced. Consistently forced to expand their strike zone after falling behind in the count, the Phillies struck out nine times against him, with Howard accounting for three of them. They scored a run after Raul Ibanez hit a ground-rule double and Matt Stairs drove him home in the second inning, but Burnett allowed just two hits after that.
In the eighth, manager Joe Girardi asked Rivera to earn a two-out save for the 14th time in his postseason career.
The first of those two innings would be the biggest test. Rollins walked, and Shane Victorino pushed a single through the hole at second base.
That brought Utley up with one out, a chance to take the lead and Howard waiting on deck. It was a situation in which even the best closers sometimes fail. But in the postseason, Rivera never does.
On a full count, Utley hit a grounder to second base, and the Yankees turned it for a double play despite replays that showed Utley might have beaten the throw.
“I’ll tell you something else,” Manuel said. “Utley was safe. Go look. He was safe.”
Nonetheless, the inning was over, and Howard wouldn’t come up with a runner on base.
When he did bat in the ninth, he struck out for the fourth time in the game. Rivera gave up a double to Ibanez but nothing else. And the Yankees got their win.
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