A Good Start

Caption: Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee waits for a sign from his catcher in the ninth inning of the first game of the 2009 World Series.

Image credit: Photo of MLB/Fox Sports broadcast by Cujo359

By a score of 6-1, the Philadelphia Phillies won the first game of the World Series.

With past Cy Young winners CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee facing each other on a cold, misty evening, this looked to be a pitching duel, which it turned out to be at first. Sabathia was good, but unfortunately for him and the Yankees, Lee was awesome. Lee shut out the Yankees over eight innings. He allowed one run in the Yankees' ninth inning. Sabathia shut out all the Phillies not named Chase Utley over seven innings. Utley, however, hit two solo home runs. These were all the runs the Phillies needed.

Lee pitched a complete game, and until the last couple of innings, his pitches were either at the bottom of the strike zone or on the corners. He made only a few pitches into the heart of the strike zone, and on those rare occasions the Yankees hitters weren't able to connect.

The Yankees bullpen, which relative to the Phillies' was probably their biggest advantage, didn't pitch like it this evening. They let four runs score in the ninth inning, basically putting the game out of reach.

Game 2 is tomorrow at 4:30 PDT.