Cliff Lee Could Doom Yanks

The Yanks got an up-close and personal look at why the Phillies made it to the World Series -- namely dominating pitching from Cliff Lee and offense from the power hitting infielder de-jour (Chase Utley tonight, Ryan Howard or Jimmy Rollins any other game).

While I'm 99% sure the Yanks will win Thursday night and send this thing to Philly tied at a game a piece, I think the Yanks have to be concerned about possibly facing Lee two more times.

I'm not sure what Charlie Manuel's plans are for the rest of the series as far as starting pitching is concerned, but this i know:

The Yankees WILL NOT beat Cliff Lee this series.

Catch my drift here?

That means if Lee pitches on short rest for Game four (and wins, as predicted here), the Yankees will have no room for error in the other games.

If they lose ONE of games 2, 3, 5 or 6....then they will end up facing Lee in game 7 (if the Phillies choose to start him three times) and lose the World Series.

I've been been bold with my predictions in the past, and i'm doing so here:

If the Yanks are going to win the World Series, they MUST win every other game in the series not started by Cliff Lee.

That means the burden falls on AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte. We know Andy has the mettle to get it done in October, but what about AJ?

If the Phillies choose to throw Lee three times in the series, Burnett becomes the critical player for the Yankees.

He can't perform at the pace I've dubbed "the AJ ratio," that being one crappy per every three.

Seeing how AJ was OK in his last start in the ALCS (despite giving up four runs in the first inning), that means according to "the AJ ratio," he's due for a crappy outing sometime during this World Series.

Seeing how he's scheduled to pitch twice, that's something the Yankees can't afford.

It seems that this World Series will be decided by two players: Cliff Lee and AJ Burnett.

Matt Estreich for The Huddle