OK, not really, but Cliff Lee's gem and Chase Utley's taters helped put the Philadelphia Phillies in excellent position to win the series and put the Yankees in a hole they'd rather not be in.
Consider the following numbers:
- Since the 1994 strike, the winner of Game 1 of the World Series has gone on to win the series 12 out of 14 times.
- Of that group, teams that won Game 1 on the road went on to win the series four out of six times.
- The Yankees have been involved in six of those 14 World Series, winning four of them and losing the other two. They lost Game 1 of the 2003 World Series at home to the Marlins and likewise lost Game 1 at home to the Diamondbacks in 2001. In 1999, the Yankees' only year to begin the World Series on the road, they beat the Braves 4-1 on the way to a series sweep.
- In this year's postseason, the winners of Game 1 in every series went on to win that series. The Dodgers were the only team to win Game 1 on the road, and they went on to sweep the Cardinals.
Of course, a team is only as good as the next day's pitcher, and though Pedro Martinez has been impressive, A.J. Burnett seems like a better option than a man days removed from his 38th birthday. And, of course, history can't determine the outcome of a baseball game, and if the Yanks drop Game 2 on Thursday, they need only look back to 1996. That year, the Yankees lost both Game 1 and Game 2 at home, but took four straight from the defending champion Braves to win the first of their four World Series.
Still, after one game, history strongly favors the Phillies, and Game 2 has become that much more crucial for the Yankees.
