There are a lot of reasons the Yankees could win the World Series.
They have the second-best hitter (behind Albert Pujols) in baseball playing the postseason of his life.
They have --- unquestionably -- the best postseason reliever of all time.
Their lineup clubbed an absurd 244 home runs and crossed home plate 915 times, and only two regulars didn't hit at least 22 round-trippers.
I'll take the Phils.
I don't buy the Yankee Stadium "aura." Or the Yankee "mystique." Or whatever those things are.
The Yankees have won 26 championships in 39 tries because they had the better team those years.
This year, they don't have the better team. How could that be?
Meet Game 1 starter Cliff Lee, Game 2 starter Pedro Martinez and Game 3 starter Cole Hamels.
Lee meets the man he followed as AL Cy Young Award winner, CC Sabathia, tonight. They have been simply dominant in the playoffs: Lee's postseason ERA is 0.74, Sabathia's is 1.19.
Remember, though, the last time Sabathia faced the Phillies in the postseason: Shane Victorino introduced himself to the world with a grand slam as part of a five-run second inning in a Philly win.
There's also the matter of the possibly rejuvenated Brad Lidge. Last year's Mr. Perfection had a historically bad 2009, but Charlie Manuel stuck with him all year, letting him rack up a monstrous 11 blown saves and a 7.21 ERA.
But in three appearances in the playoffs, he's only allowed four of 15 batters he's faced to get on base while striking out four of them. He's yet to allow a run.
So far, so good. I'm not completely back on board yet, but he's shown that he's somehow left his epic failure of a season behind.
If the Phils can sneak a victory in Game 1, New York is on the Ron Zook Memorial Hot Seat going to Game 2. And they're not getting off, because the Phils are going to abuse A.J. Burnett early and often.
Burnett, who's walked 10 batters and hit another four in 18 1/3 postseason innings, isn't very good at hitting the strike zone.
The Phightins are very good at making you pay for a lack of control. Forty-two walks and a playoff-best on-base percentage of .363 attest to that. The Los Angeles Dodgers can, too, after the Phillies turned just 36 hits into 35 runs in the NLCS, mostly because they walked 23 times and smashed 10 homers.
So the Phillies will head back to Citizens Bank Way with, at worst, a 1-1 tie in the series.
A little knowledge about the Phillies' playoff record there since October 2008: 11-1.
Which is okay, I suppose. If you like winning World Championships.
