NEW YORK — This was exactly the kind of night not to 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 at the new Yankee Stadium, the right-handed pitcher was too much for the Phillies.
Burnett found the right 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, Yankees fans can breathe again, hyperventilation on pause after Burnett, of all people, came up clutch against the ageless Pedro Martinez.
“You try to prepare yourself for these games, in this city with this crowd, and it was way more than I thought it would be,” Burnett said. “This is the most fun I have ever had on a baseball field.”
The 6-foot-5 veteran has long been known as just good enough to get managers fired. He has potential, armed with a 95-mph heater and a slider that turns hitters’ knees into pudding.
Yet, the short-pocketed 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 game with an unusual stat line: 100 career victories, $54.7 million in earnings.
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 buddy from Arkansas.
Burnett permitted just four hits over seven innings, while striking out nine and throwing first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 26 batters he faced. The Phillies’ lone run came on a ball that should have been caught, Alex Rodriguez whiffing on Matt Stairs’ shot that scored Raul Ibañez.
This was an evolved Burnett. He mixed in sinkers, rather than relying on straight gas. And he used his slider to set up a bigger breaking ball for his final two innings.
“Everything was down in the zone,” Stairs said.
Nothing exhibited Burnett’s new maturity better than a third-inning sequence. He walked Jimmy Rollins, then become obsessed with him, throwing over repeatedly and losing command with a faulty slide step. Burnett walked Chase Utley, forcing Ryan Howard, the hottest hitter on the planet, to the plate.
He was 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the playoffs. Howard received one fat fastball to hit, then whiffed on a nasty breaking pitch.
The Yankees’ vaunted offense didn’t fare much better against Martinez, who gave the mother of all performances as the crowd serenaded him with chants of “Who’s Your Daddy?” Two swings cost Martinez his first victory in these playoffs. Slumping Mark Teixeira banged a fourth-inning home run, and Hideki Matsui lifted a fastball off his shoe tops into the right-field seats to shove the Yankees ahead in the sixth.
“I don’t know if this is my biggest moment, but given the circumstances it ranks near the top,” Matsui said.
The Yankees’ two-run lead felt bigger as closer Mariano Rivera entered for a six-out save. Benefiting from a large strike zone and a debatable double play on Utley in the eighth, Rivera posted his 38th postseason save.
“It’s a good feeling when you see him come into the game,” shortstop Derek Jeter said. “You have a lot of confidence, because you know how much confidence he has in himself.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
