It Was Over Quickly

C. C. Sabathia was good. He was determined and despite not having his best stuff, he pitched a hell of a game. His only problem was twice running into Chase Utley's bat. Two solo homers and the way Lee was pitching, it was over. It wasn't pretty later when the Yankee bullpen imploded, but it wouldn't have mattered. Other than Derek Jeter, who hit Lee like he's always hits Lee, the Yankees were defenseless.

A couple of observations early. Lee was leaving some first pitch strikes right in the middle of the plate early in the game. One to A-Rod, one to Damon and one to Teixeira come to mind. Lee isn't one of those pitchers you try to tire out with long at bats. He throws strikes so it isn't going to happen. If you get to him early, he can blow up in lightning speed. That happened a few times after his great start after the trade when he won a bunch in a row. After that streak, teams started getting to him early. That's probably a scouting report thing. The Yankees should put that in the memory bank and look for fat fastballs early in the game. Lee is a very good pitcher. But he isn't THIS good.

A couple more observations. The Phillies are a seriously cocky team. Of course, it is completely impossible for this writer to be objective, but between Rollins' prediction, Utley's "Look at me, ain't I pretty" look after his homers and Lee's demeaner on the mound on the pop up and comebackers, all looked like a team pretty full of themselves. Keep that in mind as we go along.

One last observation that is completely subjective--impossible for the Fan to be objective here--it didn't seem that the Yankees and the Phillies had the same strike zone. Again, the Phillies flat out beat the Yankees, but the Fan is just saying.

So, it's 1-0 Philadelphia and it doesn't look good for the Yankees.