A.J. Burnett humbled Philadelphia’s finest batters while Hideki Matsui and Mark Teixiera each blasted home runs on Thursday to lead the New York Yankees past the Phillies 3-1 and level the World Series.
The four top hitters for the reigning World Series champions went 0-for-10 against Burnett, with Phillies slugger Ryan Howard striking out three times as the Yankees leveled Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final at 1-1.
Burnett struck out nine and scattered four hits in seven innings for his first playoff triumph. The 32-year-old right-hander had the fourth-longest career wait among active starting pitchers to reach the playoffs.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Teixiera, mired in a .186 playoff batting slump, hit a solo homer off Pedro Martinez in the fourth inning to pull New York even and Japan’s Matsui blasted a sixth-inning homer to give the Yankees 2-1 lead.
“Matsui’s home run was huge,” Yankee manager Joe Girardi said.
Jorge Posada singled in Jerry Hairston with an insurance run in the seventh inning and ace closing reliever Mariano Rivera threw 39 pitches, his most in a Series appearance, to obtain the last six outs for his record 10th Series save.
The scene now shifts to Philadelphia for games three through five starting today, when Yankee star Andy Pettitte, a four-time Series champion, is set to face fellow southpaw Cole Hamels, last year’s Series Most Valuable Player.
The Yankees have won 26 titles in 40 World Series appearances, both marks more than twice as many as their nearest rival, but have not captured the crown since 2000 despite baseball’s biggest payroll — US$201 million this year.
Philadelphia opened the scoring in the second inning when Raul Ibanez doubled off the left-field line and scored on a Matt Stairs single, but Martinez, a long-time Yankee nemesis with Boston, could not hold the lead.
“Pedro got hurt by the long ball,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “It was a heck of a game. We just couldn’t pull it out.”
The 38-year-old Dominican right-hander struck out eight in just over six innings of work, extending Yankees playoff star Alex Rodriguez’s debut World Series slump to 0-for-8 with three strikeouts for the second night in a row.
“The first couple [playoff] series, Alex carried the entire offense,” Teixeira said. “He hasn’t gotten any hits but I’m going to bet Alex is going to be fine the rest of this Series.”
Teixiera caught a high Martinez change-up well and Matsui belted his eighth US career playoff homer into the right-field stands.
Hairston, playing for New York in place of Nick Swisher because of a superior batting average (10-for-27) against Martinez, singled to open the seventh and took third on Melky Cabrera’s single to end Martinez’s night.
Reliever Park Chan-ho, only the second South Korean to play in the World Series, entered for Philadelphia and gave up a single to pinch-hitter Posada that brought Hairston home for the last run.
Philadelphia’s Chase Utley stretched his record playoff streak of reaching base to 27 games when Burnett intentionally walked him in the third, but grounded into a double play in the eighth to kill a possible Phillies rally.
■FANS HATE TO LOVE HIM
AFP, NEW YORK
Pedro Martinez was taunted and jeered by New York Yankees fans as he has been for years in a World Series loss on Thursday, but the 38-year-old Dominican right-hander figures it’s all because they love him.
The Phillies pitcher struck out eight batters in six innings, but surrendered solo home runs to Japan’s Hideki Matsui and US veteran Mark Teixiera in a 3-1 loss.
Martinez was hated for years as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, and going 8-4 in the original Yankee Stadium did not help. He was heckled by Yankees supporters but says they scream obscenities because they love.
“I know they want to root for me. It’s just that I don’t play for the Yankees is all,” Martinez said. “I’ve always been a competitor. They love that. If I was playing for the Yankees I would probably be a king over here. But that’s not the case right now.”
Martinez was greeted by “Who’s Your Daddy?” chants from Yankee fans before he could make his first pitch, the taunt recalling a 2004 Martinez remark after a loss to the Yankees: “I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy.”
He responded by striking out three of the first four Yankee batters and made fans pay for a later repeat of the chant with back-to-back strikeouts, keeping Yankees hero Alex Rodriguez hitless for his first World Series.
When Martinez was pulled after surrendering two singles to open the seventh inning, he departed to catcalls and jeers like few others in the Bronx inspire.
“It’s a new Yankee Stadium but the fans remain the fans,” he said. “I saw one guy sitting with his daughter in the front row and a cup of beer in the other hand and saying all kinds of nasty things. I had to stop and tell him, ‘How dumb could you be to say all those nasty things in front of your child?’”
Martinez said he was not eating or sleeping well before his first World Series appearance since helping Boston end an 86-year title drought in 2004, but did his best.
“I felt good enough to make pitches,” Martinez said. “I gave everything I had. I didn’t think there was anything else I could do. You have to give those guys credit. I don’t see them beating us very often with three runs or less.”
Martinez took pride in a job well done after joining the Phillies at mid-season for a 17th Major League Baseball campaign that might not be his last.
“I’m extremely proud at being able to compete against a very solid team, to put my team in position to win,” he said. “I made the right decision to come back and have this opportunity to pitch in the World Series ... If we don’t win it I will probably give it another shot.”
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