NEW YORK — This was exactly the kind of night to not want A.J. Burnett.
He was too inconsistent, flakier than Kellogg’s. He was too lean on accomplishments, possessing more tattoos than big wins. But on a cool Thursday night in the new Yankee Stadium, Burnett was too much for the Phillies to handle.
Burnett found the time and place for himself on the sport’s biggest stage, suffocating the Phillies in a 3-1 victory that evened the World Series at a game apiece.
Maybe now, Yankee fans can breathe again, hyperventilation a stranger after Burnett, of all people, came up clutch against the ageless Pedro Martinez. The 6-foot-5 right-hander has long been known as a pitcher just good enough to get managers fired. He has so much potential, armed with a 94-mph heater, and a slider that turns hitters’ knees to pudding.
Yet the Florida Marlins never considered paying to keep him. And the Toronto Blue Jays never tried to match the Yankees’ offer for him last winter. So Burnett entered Thursday’s games with an unusual stat line: 100 career victories, $54.7 million in earned salary.
All those chances, all those voices that cried out that he was an elite talent were vindicated in the most important game of his career. Burnett wasn’t Cliff Lee – who is? – but he gave a spot-on impression of his good buddy from Arkansas.
Burnett permitted just four hits while striking out nine and throwing first-pitch strikes to the first 11 batters he faced. The Phillies’ lone run came on a ball that should have been caught, Alex Rodriguez whiffing on a Matt Stairs shot that scored Raul Ibañez.
Nothing exhibited Burnett’s new maturity better than a third-inning sequence. He walked Jimmy Rollins, then became obsessed with him, picking over repeatedly and losing his mechanics as he tried a faulty slide-step delivery. That resulted in a walk to Chase Utley, forcing Ryan Howard, the hottest hitter on the planet, to the plate. The slugger was 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the playoffs when he stepped into the box.
Howard got one fastball to hit, then became easy prey for Burnett. Able to command the lower half of the zone, Burnett whiffed the Phillies’ first baseman on a slider.
The Yankees’ vaunted offense didn’t fare much better against Martinez, who gave the mother of all performances as the crowd serenaded him to chants of “Who’s Your Daddy” all night.
Two swings cost Martinez his first victory in these playoffs. Mark Teixeira, snapping out of an autumn-long slump, banged a fourth-inning home run, and Hideki Matsui lifted a fastball off his shoe tops in the sixth to shove the Yankees ahead.
Their two-run lead felt much bigger as Mariano Rivera entered in the eighth. Acting as his own setup man, Rivera struck out Matt Stairs to padlock the victory.
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
