The answer: Burnett helps Yankees even series

Going down 2-0 in a series would have been a very tough hole to crawl out of. A.J. Burnett avoided that disaster by pitching the Yankees to a 3-1 victory. Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui provided the offense with a pair of solo blasts.

Quick ‘Cap:
The Phillies took the early lead once again on an RBI single by Matt Stairs (of all people in the Phillies lineup) in the second inning. Teixeira’s Tex message landed in the Yankees bullpen in the fourth inning to even the score, and then Matsui’s “thrilla from godzilla” in the sixth gave the Yankees the lead for good.

But Burnett was the real star of this game. With postseason battery mate Jose Molina behind the dish, Burnett K’d nine over seven innings. Molina grounded out, walked and picked a runner off first.

Mariano Rivera pitched the final two innings (as expected), and avoided the Phillies’ key scoring chance in the eighth with a 4-6-3 DP. Full box score here.

Thoughts:
Both these low-scoring games are showing people why good pitching beats good hitting any day of the week. These are two of the top offenses in baseball, yet they’ve only totaled 11 runs in the first two games.

Both starters pitched very well, like Game 1, but this time it was the Phillies pitcher, Pedro Martinez, to falter.

Line of the Night:
Burnett: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K. That looks like a winning line to me. Well done, A.J.

Up Next:
Game 3 is Halloween night (Saturday) in Philly. Everyone dress up as their favorite Yankee! Right?