Those "Frillies" darn good in Game 1

It was good-natured fun for the New York Post to antagonize a nemesis this week, but Philadelphia came out fighting in Game 1 of the World Series.

Chase Utley hit homers in his first two at-bats against Yankees ace CC Sabathia - the first lefty to hit two homers off a lefty in a World Series since Babe Ruth, and the first homers Sabathia has given up to a lefty at Yankee Stadium all season - and Cliff Lee was absolutely dominant again in the Phillies' 6-1 victory on Wednesday night in a steady drizzle in the Bronx.

Lee is having a postseason that's approaching legendary status - he's now 3-0 with an 0.54 earned run average in four postseason starts. He threw 122 pitches, 80 for strikes. He had 10 strikeouts and no walks against the best lineup in baseball. That run in the ninth? Unearned. Only Derek Jeter (three hits) was able to do anything against Lee.

Lee's Cy Young season in 2008 came out of nowhere, and after a slow start in Cleveland in April, he looked like he was in danger of becoming a sort of one-hit wonder.

But he's a rock star now. Lee is breaking through to a whole new level in his career, entering the stratosphere among big-league pitchers with this postseason, certainly the best since Josh Beckett's fabulous run two years ago and rivaling some of the best playoff performances in history, such as Curt Schilling in 2001 and Orel Hershiser in 1988 - and even approaching the postseason icons such as Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax in the 1960s.

Gibson was ferocious; Hershiser was a bulldog. Lee? He's Mr. Cool.

"It's the same game I've been playing my whole life," Lee said after the game to the Philadelphia Daily News. "This is the stage I've wanted to be on since I was a kid. I've already put all the work in. There's no sense in being nervous."

Now it's Pedro Martinez's turn to take the ball and really put the Yankees on their heels in Game 2. Expect Yankees fans, knowing that this is a game the Yankees really need to win, to come out more boisterous on Thursday against an old buddy from the Red Sox and Mets rivalries. It's a certainty that a chant of "who's your daddy" will come raining down from the upper deck rather quickly if anything goes awry. Martinez is 11-11 with a 3.2o ERA lifetime against the Yankees, and 1-1 in the postseason.

A.J. Burnett pitches for the Yankees. The Phillies hit him well in an interleague game on May 22 (five earned runs in six innings), and the Phillies have a history of doing well against Burnett (5-8, 4.75 ERA in 17 starts vs. Phils).