Numbers Stacked Against Yankees in World Series After Game 1 Loss

Start spreading the news — the World Series is over.

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.