2009 Chachi #79 World Series Game 1/Cliff Lee & Chase Utley

World Series Game 1 - October 28, 2009
Phillies 6, Yankees 1

It took five games over a span of 59 years, but the Philadelphia Phillies have won their first World Series game against the New York Yankees. Playing in a steady drizzle, the Phillies won behind a gem from their ace Cliff Lee and two home runs from Chase Utley.

Cliff Lee was on tonight. Locating his fastball and keeping the Yankees off-balance with his off-speed pitches, he made it look easy. He struck out the side in the 4th, the heart of the Yankees order no less, giving him seven strikeouts already at that early stage the game. In the end, he finished with a complete game, allowing no earned runs, striking out ten, walking none and scattering six Yankees' hits. (He also made a few cool plays in the field!)

Through the first six, both starting pitchers had allowed just four hits. However, two of the hits allowed by Yankees starter CC Sabathia were solo home runs by Chase Utley. Chase finished off an amazing 9-pitch at-bat in the 3rd by drilling a CC fastball into the right field stands to give the Phils a 1-0 lead. He jumped in his Cadillac again in the 6th with a long home run again to right.

Raul Ibañez added two more runs in the 8th, singling home Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino to make it 4-0 Phils. Shane's RBI-single in the 9th, along with Ryan Howard's RBI-double added the final two Phillies runs. A small bump in the road in the form of a Jimmy Rollins error allowed the Yankees to score their lone run in the bottom of the 9th. But that would be the only blemish on Cliff Lee's 122-pitch masterpiece.

Best Highlight: A month and a half shy of his third birthday, our son Doug was in bed prior to the first pitch tonight. I made sure he took his rally towel with him though. I checked in on him during the 7th inning stretch and he was sound asleep, clutching his Phillies rally towel. Perfect.