After Cliff Lee and Chase Utley got the World Series off to a memorable start for the Phillies on Wednesday, the Yankees evened things up with a crisp, methodical 3-1 victory last night. Like Game One, the game was well-pitched on both sides, and just as C.C. Sabathia was a smidge worse than Lee, the great old warhorse Pedro Martinez came through with an economical performance that was just a bit inferior to A.J. 
Burnett‘s gem. Burnett, who customarily has an inning or two with the yips, went seven, suffering only one run in damage. Meanwhile, solo homers from Mark Teixiera in the sixth and Hideki Matsui in the seventh made the difference; Matsui’s was especially noteworthy
, golfing a curve that was nearly in the dirt into the right field bleachers. Mariano Rivera pitched a 6 out save. I loved what Joe Posnanski wrote about Rivera on si.com: “There’s no stadium in baseball quite as relaxed and certain as Yankee Stadium in the ninth inning with a lead. Rivera has not been perfect in his remarkable 15-year career … but close enough. He has been so good that New York fans have grown almost unaffected by the tension and fear that is supposed to afflict the body in the ninth inning of a close game. With other closers — even the best closers — there’s a jolt of adrenaline that runs through the stadium. It’s like the beginning of a Springsteen concert. Here we go! This is going to be great! You rock! But with Rivera — even if he does enter to the strains of Metallica’s Enter Sandman — the feeling is different. It’s more like the feeling of a superhero arriving on the scene. Thank God you’re here, Superman! In New York, the game is won when Rivera steps on the mound. The rest is performance.” Eight down, three to go.
