by Seth Wenig - AP

It ends here.

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"Have you ever seen Gattaca?"

"Um. Oh. Yeah. With Halle Berry?"

"Huh? No..you're thinking of Gothika. Wait, you've seen Gothika?"

"No."

"Then why did you say--ok, nevermind, the point is, there's this part in the movie where these 2 guys, who always have these swimming competitions with each other, are like treading water in the middle of the ocean, and one guy says, 'How did you do it? How do always, always beat me?' and the other guy says, 'You know how I did it? I never saved anything for the way back.'"

That was a conversation I had with my sister after Game 5.

The Yankees don't need Game 7. The 2009 baseball season ends tonight.

Put everything in. Andy Pettitte with short rest. Pedro Martinez with long-history. A Yankee line-up whose made a living just-besting their postseason opponents. A fanbase that's teetered on nerves, anxiety, but always hope.

A team that's been waiting for this for 9 years.

Never save anything for the swim back.

Because it ends tonight.

by David J. Phillip - AP

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All the debating and arguing about whether Burnett should pitch on short rest will end if the Yanks win tonight.

On three days of rest, A.J. is 4-0 with a 2.33 ERA (in 27 innings) in his career. The last time he pitched on short rest was September of 2008 (6 ip, 0 er). Very good numbers, but beware of small sample sizes...

Lee hopefully comes back to Earth tonight. His postseason ERA is .54.

He's done incredibly well vs. the Yanks recently: 1.29 ERA in his last four starts, and hasn't allowed more than three runs since 2006.

Surprisingly, Jose Molina hits Lee better than Posada. Tex, Jeter and A-Rod have had a lot of success against Lee, but on the other end of the spectrum are Damon and Cano, who might as well try to bunt for hits.

Here is John Flaherty's take (and I fully agree with him):

On pitching alone, I'd give a slight edge to Lee but less than if you'd asked me at the start of the series. That's how much I think of what A.J. did in Game 2. I'd say this, too: I think the first three innings are huge tonight. If Lee stumbles at all, and gives up a few runs, I think the Phillies might say ‘we can't win three in a row against this team' and make life easier for A.J. In a game like this one, I see one inning - or even one hit - being the difference.

One more guys! Stay focused.

by Rob Carr - AP

Let's go Yankees!

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If there's anybody on the Yankees who is (as Teddy Roosevelt called himself) "strong as a bull moose," it's CC Sabathia.

He pitched brilliantly against the Angels on 3 days rest, and the Yankees turn to him again.  He has a chance to put the Yankees firmly in the driver's seat for the Series.

His opponent is former Oakland A Joe Blanton, who was sent to the Phils last season midseason in a classic salary dump to a big market team.

Jeter has hit him (.333/.385/.583- fearful symmetry), Tex has pounded him (.333/.357/.704), Jorge has crushed him (.400/.500/.600) and Arod has destroyed him (.571/.727/1.571).

With last night's offensive outburst, the Yankees finally started to look like the Yankees.  Here's to staying hot.

I feel like this is the most 'must win' game for the Yanks so far.  They're bringing back their ace against a guy no one is giving a chance.  But Joe Blanton is not a bad pitcher, and with a sure fight coming between Burnett and Lee, I don't want to let Philly back into the Series.  Step on their neck.

Let's go Yankees!

by Rob Carr - AP

Let's go Yankees!

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Two underrated lefties take the hill today.

For the Yankees, Andy Pettitte, the perpetual near retiree.  After signing AJ and CC, the Yankees were seriously contemplating Life After Andy.  Thankfully, Andy swallowed some of his pride, took a massive pay cut from the $16M he made in 2008, then made good on his incentive laden deal.

Like Pedro on Thursday, Andy's success comes with guts, guile and changing speed to keep hitters off balance.

For the Phillies, Cole Hamels has been the poster child for the overuse of a young pitcher.  He threw a total of 262 innings in 2008, and came back to Spring Training 2009 with a sore arm and completed the season with a painfully high ERA (4.32).  His H/9 jumped from 7.6 to 9.6.  On the other hand, his BB/9 dropped from 2.1 to 2.9, his HR/9 and K/9 are identical to last season.  Meanwhile, his BABIP has soared from .270 to .325.

That's another very good pitcher on the mound for the Phillies tonight, here's to his bad luck continuing through the postseason.

Pitching has dominated the first 2 games, with the superstar sluggers Arod and Ryan Howard going 0/8, 0BB, 6K and 2/9, 0BB, 6K respectively.  Andy will have to hold down one of the best offenses in the game, while the Yanks need to get something going early and into the Phillies' bullpen.

by Elise Amendola - AP

You again, huh?

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Let's see...in the last 24 hours, I've:

• Thrown a pen at a Red Sox fan because he said, "I'm loving the way this series is going."
• Told my buddy to go to hell when it came to my attention he bet on the Phillies to win the whole series.
• Took a leave of absence from my best friend/sister for texting me during the game.
• Changed the M and N on my coworker's keyboard because he said, "They lost BAD last night, huh."

And still none of these behavioral monuments to lunacy are as ridiculous as Pedro Martinez saying "Any time I hear that, 'Who's your daddy?' it reminds me that God is my daddy. It gives me strength. It keeps me strong and healthy, and I believe I can do anything."

So, if we consider that it was only 5 years ago that Pedro claimed the Yankees were, in fact, his daddy, by the transitive property, we can infer that Pedro thinks the Yankees are God.

Here we go. Game 2. Not a must-win situation, so I won't call it that. The Phillies send our boy Petey to the mound, who hasn't pitched in the Bronx since his Mets days in 2005. According to him, he's "older and wiser" which should bring his overall net intelligence to around sea level now. A.J. Burnett gets the nod for the Yanks, and I have this weird feeling that our boy is going to stun us (in a good way.)

The Phils are good. But the Yankees are the Yankees. And that's all you need to know going into tonight. Let's get 'em back, NY. This series is ours.

by David J. Phillip - AP

It all starts here...

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It's almost surreal. I can't believe that in mere hours I'll be watching the New York Yankees in the World Series. I'm strangely calm, which means that it's all going to catch up to me about 2 minutes before the National Anthem is sung. Fortunately, I'm prepared.

Tonight, our favorite round boy and ALCS MVP CC Sabathia (3-0, 1.19) goes up against superace and ex-teammate Cliff Lee (2-0, 0.74) for a match that walked straight out of Type Casting for Mega-Pitching-Duel. The AP so insightfully informs us that the two hurlers have more in common than we may think:

"Teammates only 16 months ago, Lee and Sabathia have more in common than their Cleveland history and potent left arms. Their families are friendly, and they still text each other often."

Wow, they're practically clones.

CC hasn't had the most success against the Phils (1-2, 5.55), but then again, it seems like the baseball world has been scoffing left, right, and center at history this year. Lee isn't striking fear into the hearts of most NY fans either, though. In 12 IP, he's let up 16 hits, with Yankee hitters boasting a .320 BA against him.

Lee's the type of pitcher the Yanks can work from both ends--his control is subject to variability, and he has too much faith in his completely hittable fastball. If they jump on those 2 weaknesses, the Phillies aren't gonna know what hit 'em.

This year, the Yankees are 1-2 against their "Liberty Series" counterpart, but I think we can agree that the Late May Yanks are a far cry from this Late October one. Much has been made of the Big Bad Bats decorating the Philly line-up, but technically Ryan Howard and Chase Utley don't bat 9 times in a row.

And, most importantly, this is the Bronx.

And I think Reds' manager Dusty Baker sums it up pretty well here:

I’ve lost in Yankee Stadium as a Dodger and won in Yankee Stadium as a Dodger. It can be done, but you don’t want to be in a position where you have to win there. They just believe they are always going to win, the players believe it, the fans believe it.

They brain wash you. They put all those great moments in Yankees history on the scoreboard during batting practice. The highlights are great and the Yankees are just killing teams and you have to watch it for two hours. You can’t help but see it. It's just not conducive for visitors.

They wanted to take that vibe and that history from the old stadium and bring it to the new Yankee Stadium and with the success they are having it appears to have worked. I remember when Aaron Boone hit that home run off Wakefield to get the Yankees to the World Series in 2003, Derek Jeter had told him not to worry that the ghost will come.

So the Ghost of Babe Ruth may be a curse to some but he’s been good for the Yankees.

Scared yet, Philly?

I feel for Ed and all the other Giants fans out there forced to choose.  The NFL already shuffled its schedules in a blatant ratings grab, putting the Jets and Giants against each other again so that it could show Brett Farve vs the Packers in a prime time spot.

Bud Selig and MLB are just reminding the die hards like us that we're really not important.  If an extra half a million casual fans tune in for a few innings, it's more important than the actual quality of the game.

So we play tonight- Joe Saunders against Andy Pettitte. 

Most of Yankee Universe feels good about the matchup, and with good reason.  Arod (.500/.533/1.071), Posada (.500/.600/.500) and Jeter (.467/.500/.733) have had consistent success against Saunders.  If those 3 are on tonight, only a little help from the rest of team will be necessary (which is good because Swisher .238/.360/.381 and Damon.286/.375/.357 are the only ones whose numbers are vaguely respectable.

On the other side of the coin, all of the Angels have solid numbers against Pettitte, although he has held Yankee-killer Howie Kendrick to a .250 OBP.  I'll especially hold my breath when Vlad is up to bat (.391/.417/.522).

If the Yankees can get into the Angels' bullpen early, it will be a good night for the Bombers.

by Mark J. Terrill - AP

It's not a postseason win without a patented captain fist pump.

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The more I think about it, the more I'm relieved the Yankees didn't beat the Angels on Monday. Because being up 3-0 would have undoubtedly cued a barrage of clips from The Unspeakable Year. And if they had won 3, then lost 1? Forget about it, the sports world would have had a veritable field day predicting "Here we go again!"

But that's not the case. The Yanks have Anaheim right where they want 'em: 27 outs away from the final hurdle in the Road to 27. A.J. Burnett (13-9, 4.04) gets the honor of trying to close out this series, while John Lackey (11-8, 3.83) gets the chore of trying to avoid headlining Anaheim's season swan song.

Burnett, who I assign a generous helping of credit to for lighting a fire under this team's ass, is too much of a pistol to not rise to the occasion here. In his last start, he let up 2 earned runs and 2 unearned, with his wild penchants discernibly surfacing before getting pulled. Lackey got worked in Game 1, giving up 9 runs and 4 runs over 5.2 IP.

The Yanks won't be able to rely on their sit-on technique that worked like clockwork again Scott Kazmir: Lackey's a 1st-pitch-strike kind of guy (my head is already hurting from T-Mac and Buck marveling at this for about 89 mentions.)

This also might be a good time for Mark Teixeira flex his offensive muscles and break out of his .133 postseason freeze. #13 can only compensate for his buddy's sleeping bat for so long... As for predictions, I think #34 delivers us to 4-3 final tonight, giving the Yanks their 40th pennant with a 4-1 series victory. All on the eve of #41's 31st birthday. 

LET'S GO YANKEES. THE TITLE AWAITS!

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by Julie Jacobson - AP

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We just saw this guy 96 hours ago dominating the Angels' lineup. The coaching staff is asking him to do it again, this time on short rest. In game one, Sabathia was coming off eight days of rest. Some of that will hopefully carry over tonight.

CC is relatively familiar with pitching on short rest: he did it four consecutive times last year with Milwaukee. In the first three (during the Brewers wildcard run), he was phenomenal, allowing two earned runs in 21.1 innings (.83 ERA). However, the proverbial wheels fell off in his fourth start, which happened to be game one of the NLDS (3.2 ip, 5 er).

I'm expecting much better this time, for this will be his first start on short rest this season.

Opposing him is our old nemesis, Scott Kazmir. The former D-Ray excelled after getting traded to the Angels mid-season, posting a 1.73 ERA in 36.1 innings (with 26 K, 10 BB and a 1.05 WHIP).

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by Jae C. Hong - AP

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The Yankees have gone 8-20 in Anaheim over the last five years (including the 2005 LDS), and haven't won a season series there since 2004. However, they were able to win two out of three in Anaheim a month ago.

The bad news is that Andy Pettitte has pitched terribly against the Angels this season. In three starts (two in Anaheim), he allowed 14 earned runs in 16 innings (7.88 ERA), with 21 hits, eight walks and six strikeouts. The two games in SoCal saw him give up nine earned runs in 10 innings. In fact, Pettitte hasn't won a game against the Angels since August of 2007.

The good news is that Jered Weaver hasn't fared much better against the Bombers. His 2009 ERA is 5.59 (12 ER in 19.1 ip), and his career ERA (in seven games) is 5.88.

Weaver is, however, the Angels' best home pitcher. Mike Scioscia held him back just so he could pitch in Anaheim. His ERA there is nearly two runs lower (2.90 vs. 4.78).

Andy Pettitte, meanwhile, is also a better home pitcher (3.71 vs. 4.59), so this is a matchup that definitely favors the Angels (at least on paper).

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