Led by designated hitter Hideki Matsui's 6 RBI night - perhaps in his last game in pinstripes - the New York Yankees won their 27th championship and their first since 2000, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 and winning the 2009 World Series, four games to two.

Matsui, the Japanese star whose nickname is "Godzilla," trampled on the Phillies. He was 8 for 13 in the World Series. On Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, he hit a two-run homer into the second deck in right field in the second inning and a bases-loaded single in the third against Phillies starter Pedro Martinez, who only lasted four innings. He had a two-run double against J.A. Happ in the fifth. Matsui was named MVP of the series despite not starting in any of the three games in Philadelphia. His six RBI tied a World Series game record set in 1960 by the Yankees' Bobby Richardson.

The Yankees' Andy Pettitte pitched well on three days' rest and is 6-2 in games that the Yankees can clinch a postseason series in his career. It was the 18th win of his postseason career, extending his own record, and it was his fifth World Series win, his second in this World Series. He's also a free agent after the season, but it's very unlikely he'll end up in another uniform at age 37. He could opt to retire, however - going out on top.

Mariano Rivera came on in the eighth and finished off the game in the ninth, retiring the Phillies' Shane Victorino for the final out on a ground ball to second baseman Robinson Cano as the Yankees won a championship in their first year in the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees also won a title in the first year of the old Yankee Stadium, way back in 1923. They also won that World Series in six games, over the New York Giants.

It was the fifth championship for Pettitte, Rivera, shortstop Derek Jeter and catcher Jorge Posada, all with the Yankees, and the first title for many of their high-priced free agents, such as Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and Matsui. And Johnny Damon became the first player to win championships with the Red Sox and Yankees since Babe Ruth.

Also: List of World Series champions.

After the Philadelphia Phillies won 8-6 on Monday and sent the World Series back to New York for a Game 6 on Wednesday, their body language of the Phillies said it all:

Glad that's over.

As Ryan Madson recorded the last out, the Phillies congratulated each other like they just had knocked off the Nationals in May. Perhaps that's what it's like when a six-run lead almost evaporates in two innings, turning what could have been a momentum-turning event in the World Series into another white-knuckle evening at Citizens Bank Park.

There were a lot of interesting moments in Game 5. Cliff Lee was great in the middle innings, but shaky at the beginning and end this time out. (But he's still 4-0 this postseason.) The Yankees' A.J. Burnett, so good in Game 2, was positively awful on three days' rest. He was so bad that he'll be available in long relief if Andy Pettitte pulls a similar act on Wednesday in Game 6.

And the Phillies never went to Brad Lidge, opting for Madson in the ninth inning, who was every bit as shaky as Lidge was on Sunday night until he struck out Mark Teixeira with Johnny Damon on base and Alex Rodriguez looming on deck.

With Chase Utley swinging one of the hottest bats in postseason history - he tied Reggie Jackson for the most home runs in one World Series with two more long balls on Monday - the Phillies should have a lot more momentum heading back to Yankee Stadium. The Yankees might have to throw two more pitchers on three days' rest - a point that really could hurt in a day or two. But this series still feels like the Yankees are in total control, because their hitters are always pesky and aren't conceding a thing. They're putting all the pressure on the Phillies, and they came very close to cracking like the Liberty Bell again.

It will be a throwback night in the first World Series Game 6 in six years - Pettitte vs. Pedro. Think the New York fans will be on their game for this one?

Alex Rodriguez and Brad Lidge were essentially having the same postseason - surprisingly good ones - until they met in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, in the moment that will likely define the 2009 season.

It was a riveting sequence. Tie game, two on, two out, closer vs. clean-up hitter. And it was Rodriguez who erased all the doubts.

His line-shot double off the wall in left scored Johnny Damon with the go-ahead run, and Jorge Posada's two-run single gave Mariano Rivera two more insurance runs as the Yankees stand on the doorstep of their 27th title after beating the Phillies 7-4, taking a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven World Series.

Sunday's Game 4 was the kind of game that defines a series and a season. The Phillies needed to win more, and when Pedro Feliz hit a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game against Joba Chamberlain, they had life. (That straight-as-an-arrow fastball is the reason Chamberlain would not be a good closer long-term. It just took three Phillies batters to time it.)

And then Lidge comes on in the ninth and blows away Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter, the same way he did the Rockies and the Dodgers in the first two rounds, bringing Johnny Damon to the plate.

Damon strokes a clean single to left in a nine-pitch battle with Lidge, then steals second with an infield shift on. When Damon realizes that nobody is covering third, he just keeps running - Lidge's first breakdown - and an alert Damon ratchets the pressure on Lidge even higher. Lidge then hits Mark Teixeira with a pitch, and A-Rod comes through with the game on the line again, just as he didn't do in so many past postseasons that Yankees fans had lost count.

If Damon or Teixeira or Rodriguez is retired, the Phillies have the top of the order at the plate against a Yankees middle reliever in a tie game. Trailing, they have to face Mariano Rivera. Game over.

Rivera got his lead, and the two runs that Posada provided with his gap shot made it academic. Rivera threw a few cutters - everybody in the ballpark knows it's coming, but can't do a thing about it - and the Phillies succumbed to the inevitable.

The Phillies' fatal flaw against the Yankees is that their lineup is too left-handed to be consistently effective. Aside from Chase Utley, they don't hit Sabathia well. Andy Pettitte is left-handed. Lefty Damaso Marte has been effective out of the bullpen. And then there's Rivera, who is death to lefties with the cut fastball that rides in on the bat's handle. He now throws it every single pitch to lefties. Every single pitch. Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, Raul Ibanez - they all bat left-handed. Feliz, Carlos Ruiz and Jayson Werth are all hitting better in the clutch than those lefties.

Game 5 is tonight, and Cliff Lee must come through again just to send the series back to New York. As Joe Girardi noted after Game 1, Lee can't pitch every day. And that's why they should be planning for a parade in New York.

If you watched the first couple of innings of Game 3 of the World Series and turned the channel (or drifted off to sleep) Saturday night, you'd undoubtedly be surprised at the outcome.

Two innings in, and the Phillies' Cole Hamels looked like he'd found his old self. He was spotting his pitches, had good life on his fastball and was mowing down the Yankees. Andy Pettitte, on the other hand, couldn't find the plate, had already walked in a run and looked lost.

But Hamels fell apart after giving up a questionable home run to Alex Rodriguez - was the camera inadvertently in the field of play? -  and Pettitte battled back as the Yankees took a 2-1 series lead with an 8-5 victory.

"It was tough," Pettitte said to the New York Times. "I'm not going to lie to you, I couldn't put the ball where I wanted to. I wasn't getting it down and away consistently like I wanted to, and I wasn't able to throw my curveball for strikes. It was an absolute grind tonight."

Should Hamels start again this season? Probably not. He's had enough chances, but his next turn would be a possible Game 7. No way he should be out there. It would certainly appear to be Cliff Lee on short rest, for sure. It's a sad fall for Hamels, who was the World Series MVP last season.

In Game 4, it's Joe Blanton of the Phillies against CC Sabathia of the Yankees (on short rest). In fact, it appears that the Yankees' starters will all be on short rest for the rest of the series. It seems a gamble to go with Sabathia with a 2-1 lead, but they want him on the mound for a Game 7. Sabathia has performed very well on short rest in his career (3-1, 1.01 ERA). A.J. Burnett has also done well on short rest (4-0, 2.33 ERA), with three of those starts coming in 2008 for Toronto. He seems likely to be the starter in Game 5 on Monday night.