Phillies vs. Rockies: The Philadelphia Phillies opened up the 2009 playoffs by defeating the Colorado Rockies, 5-1, in the first contest of a five-game series. Starter Cliff Lee of Philadelphia showed why he was the big fish traded for at the trade deadline as he pitched a complete game, going nine innings and gave up a run off a Troy Tulowitski RBI-single in the ninth inning. Overall, Lee struck out five and had no walks. Amazingly, this was his first playoff starter, as he was left off the 2007 Cleveland Indians playoff roster.
Philadelphia’s high octane offense did the work and gave Lee an assist as they scored twice in the fifth inning, and scored three times in the sixth to decide things. Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez who started the game, rolled through the first four innings, and matched Lee pitch for pitch; however, the Phillies jumped on him and sent him to the showers in the sixth inning. Jimenez only lasted five innings, and took the loss, giving up nine hits, but struck out five and walked one.
Philadelphia’s Raul Ibanez drove in two, and Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth along with Carlos Ruiz drove in a run each on Wednesday.
Twins vs. Yankees: The expectations for the Yankees are huge in 2009, thanks to their outrageous payroll and their free agent acquisitions; however, on Wednesday, their march to a 27th championship started off in splendid fashion as they defeated the upstart Minnesota Twins, 7-2.
The Twins, a day after their amazing win over the Tigers to take the AL Central, perhaps looked a little fatigued. For the Yankees, C.C. Sabathia — he, of the largest contract ever given to a pitcher — put aside some of his postseason failures, as he came through huge going 6 2/3 strong innings, giving up eight hits, two runs, and striking out eight. The Yankees used their bullpen — four pitchers in total, including Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera to take the first game of the series.
New York used a two-run homer by Derek Jeter in the third inning, and a two-run shot by Hideki Matsui in the sixth to put away Minnesota. More importantly, it looks like Alex Rodriguez may have too put aside his postseason struggles as he went drove in two runs with two singles.
Brian Duensing — a rookie — started off the game for Minnesota and was cruising until Jeter’s homer in the third, and things were a struggle from there. He gave up five runs — all earned — in 4 2/3 innings of work and took the loss. Minnesota scored twice in the top of the third, and took a 2-0 lead until the bottom of the inning. Michael Cuddyer had an RBI-single, and Joe Maure scored on a passed ball.
The two teams meet up again on Friday.
Dodgers vs. Cardinals: I stayed up and watched 2/3 of this game, and I thought the Cardinals with Chris Carpenter on the mound would be too much for the Dodgers; however, he didn’t too sharp on the mound, and in the end, his opponents got on him early and they may have cost St. Louis, as Los Angeles took the first game, by a score of 5-3.
The Dodgers scored twice in the first off a Matt Kemp two-run shot and scored one run each in the third, fifth, and sixth. It was shocking to see Carpenter struggle in the first inning considering his success all season — believe it or not, he kept his team in the game — but without his stuff working, he took the loss and lasted only five innings, giving up four runs. The Cardinals played hard and made the game interesting, but the Dodgers were just too much on the night.
The Cardinals got their runs off a Ryan Ludwick RBI-single in the first, a Skip Schumaker RBI-double in the fourth, and Mark DeRosa RBI-double in the ninth off Dodger closer Jonathan Broxton (who earn the save).
Joe Torre gave starter Randy Wolf — who only lasted 3 2/3 innings and gave up two runs — the early hook, and Jeff Weaver, who came on in relief, got the win, pitching 1 1/3 innings of shut-out ball.
Los Angeles made Albert Pujols — who went 0-for-3 and was ralked twice — and Matt Holliday (1-for-4 with two strikeouts) non factors in the game. Manny Ramirez was 1-for-4 with a walk, while Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake and Russel Martin each had RBI’s to go with Kemp’s two run homer.
