Phil Sheridan: Passive Phillies beat themselves

NEW YORK - The mirror image isn't quite as pretty.

A night after the Phillies' lefty ace from Arkansas made the Yankees' lineup look lost and confused, New York's Arkansan righthander, A.J. Burnett, returned the disfavor in Game 2 of the World Series.

Phillies fans who marveled at Cliff Lee's craftsmanship and guile now see the view from the other side of the looking glass. When it's Ryan Howard swatting harmlessly through perfectly located third strikes, it's not quite as entertaining as watching Alex Rodriguez walk back to the dugout with his eyes spinning like a cartoon character's.

It's a matter of perspective, of course, whether the pitching was great or the hitting was terrible. Either way, the Phillies lost an opportunity to take control of this series as it moves back to Citizens Bank Park for three games.

They are still in excellent shape. Lee's magnificent performance in Game 1 took away home-field advantage along with the Yankees' mojo. As long as Jimmy Rollins' Phils-in-Five prediction remains a possibility, there is no reason to fret.

But this truly was a lost opportunity. Charlie Manuel tipped his cap to history and melodrama with his gut call to pitch Pedro Martinez in Yankee Stadium last night. Just as he did in Los Angeles during the National League Championship Series, Martinez pitched well enough for the Phillies to win. Just as they did that day in Chavez Ravine, the Phillies' hitters chose Martinez's turn in the rotation as the perfect time for a nap.

Their game plan against the volatile Burnett seemed obvious. Take a pitch or two and see if they could get ahead in the count and force Burnett to make a mistake. During Burnett's seven innings, 17 Phillies hitters took the first pitch they saw. Trouble was, 12 of those pitches were called strikes. That meant 12 hitters in 0-1 counts. Four of those were among the nine hitters that Burnett struck out.

"Usually," designated hitter Matt Stairs said, "you try to be patient [facing Burnett], but he was pounding the strike zone tonight. I've seen some games where he's had trouble with his control, and I've seen some games like tonight."

"If we could have hit his fastball early and made him throw breaking balls a lot, his command might not be so [good], and we might be able to get him deep in counts and hit him better," Manuel said. "But he blocked all that out by throwing his fastball for strikes."

Burnett turned the Phillies' game plan against them. Aggressive hitters became defensive hitters by passing up the most hittable pitch of an at-bat.

"He had good command of his fastball," Stairs said. "He was using it to get to his front-door sinker and his backdoor curveball. He was in control. He wasn't showing a lot of emotion."

The righthander struck out three of the Phillies's big lefthanded hitters - Howard (three), Raul Ibanez (two) and Stairs (one) - a total of six times. That is a recipe for a one-run offense.

It is quite a thing, when you think about it. The Yankees had the most productive offense in the American League during the regular season, while the Phillies led the National League in runs, home runs and RBIs. Everyone looked at this World Series matchup and, factoring in the homer-happy ballparks, figured it would be a slugfest.

Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira. Howard and Ibanez, Jayson Werth and Chase Utley. First team to 10 runs hopes its bullpen can hang on.

So naturally it has been all about the pitching so far.

Lee pitched one of the great games you'll ever see, which overshadowed the very, very good performance of Yankees ace CC Sabathia. He gave up those two solo home runs to Utley, and that was it. The Phillies added four runs against the soft part of the Yankees' bullpen - that is, the part not named Mariano Rivera.

Just as Burnett answered Lee, Martinez's outing echoed Sabathia's. There was a solo homer by Teixeira in the fourth inning and another solo shot by Hideki Matsui in the sixth. Manuel was seen asking Martinez how he felt after the sixth. He shouldn't have listened: The 38-year-old had thrown 99 pitches by then, and his deceptions weren't going to work forever against a smart Yankees lineup.

Last year, the Phillies scored just five runs in the first two World Series games at Tampa Bay. They stranded 22 men on base. But they got the split on the road, brought the Series back to Philadelphia and, well, you know how that turned out.

They find themselves in exactly the same situation now. The Yankees are a better team than the Rays were, but that's almost beside the point. If the Phillies' offense gets going, this team can beat anyone.

Last night, turned passive by their approach to Burnett, the Phillies beat only themselves.