NEW YORK — Postseason baseball severed ties with the Rockies going on three weeks ago. It was a cold night in Denver, players bitterly disappointed.
With all the hankies now wrung out, Wednesday’s World Series opener revealed a simple truth about the break- up, Rockies: It wasn’t you, it was them. The Phillies are really good, bordering on dynastic.
The Yankees have spent $1.4 billion on players since their last title in 2000. The Phillies spent a drizzly, chilly evening reminding the Yankees that there’s no guarantee that this year’s check won’t bounce.
The Phil-Lees suffocated New York 6-1, taking a baby step toward becoming the first National League team to repeat since Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine in 1976.
The stars or villains, depending on your prism, were pitcher Cliff Lee (a complete game) and second baseman Chase Utley (two home runs). Sound familiar, Rockies fans? Lee pitched like he was double-parked on 161st Street, allowing just six hits while striking out 10.
“The game is just in slow motion for him right now,” Phillies closer Brad Lidge said. “He’s like ‘The Matrix.’ “
Lee worked fast and wouldn’t give the Yankees’ hitters anything to work with. He threw his cut fastball inside for strike one. He threw it outside for strike one. And just when the Yankees looked like they might actually get a good swing against him, he mixed in a knuckle curve and a Vulcan-paralyzing changeup as he outdueled former Cleveland teammate CC Sabathia (seven innings, two runs).
“He used all his pitches really well,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi lamented.
Lee is 3-0 in the playoffs, deprived only once of a win this postseason in Game 4 of the National League division series against the Rockies.
Forget the strikeouts and the meek outs, his most impressive work might have come with his glove. Lee made a basket catch of Johnny Damon’s popup in the sixth. And Lee snared Robinson Cano’s eighth-inning hopper behind his back. After throwing to first baseman Ryan Howard for the out, Lee shrugged his shoulders, conjuring up images of Michael Jordan after his sixth 3-pointer against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1992 NBA Finals.
“I just kind of blacked out,” Lee said. “The whole night was surreal.”
Lee required little help, but received a boost from Utley. His third-inning home run was the first allowed to a left-hander by Sabathia in 121 2/3 innings at the new Yankee Stadium. For those wondering, it’s just like the old Yankee Stadium, except in high def.
Utley, a stick in the Rockies’ side for his illegal knee shot in Game 3 of the division series, swatted another home run in the sixth.
“If people forget about Chase Utley because other guys are so hot, then we are going to win a lot of games,” Lidge said.
The second homer looked like it might reach the subway tracks. Probably the person least surprised was Garrett Atkins. He has worked out for years with Utley since their days together at UCLA.
“That second one was a bomb,” Atkins said. “His swing is so short and quick and powerful.”
It would be easy to dismiss this as just a single win. But history mocks that idea. The team that has been victorious in the first game of the World Series has won 11 of the last 12 Fall Classics.
And this wasn’t exactly a Cliffhanger.
“We have won a lot of Game 1s,” said shortstop Jimmy Rollins after his team’s sixth straight win in a playoff opener. “I don’t know what it all means, but it has worked for us. I do know that.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
