Media Center page<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat can we expect from the two teams?<\/h3>\n
Predictions are always dangerous, but it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too risky to state that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re likely to see a few home runs during the series.\u00c2\u00a0 The Yankees and Phillies were the top two home-run hitting teams during the regular season.\u00c2\u00a0 Both ballparks are homer-friendly and the two batting lineups are full of hitters who can put a charge into a ball, whether the pitcher makes a mistake or not.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The potency of the two sets of hitters puts even more emphasis on the pitchers than usual.\u00c2\u00a0 Conventional baseball wisdom states that good pitching will beat good hitting, but in this case the hurlers may simply be looking to limit the damage as best they can rather than expecting to dominate the series.\u00c2\u00a0 Although talented, there are question marks over a number of the pitchers that figure to play a large part in the series.\u00c2\u00a0 The Yankees’ A.J. Burnett can run through even the best lineups seemingly with ease when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on his game, but that has rarely been the case in recent months and his manager Joe Girardi will have little idea which Burnett will turn up when his start comes around (most likely in Game Two).\u00c2\u00a0 Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has the same problem with his scheduled Game Three starter Cole Hamels (probably against Yankee veteran Andy Pettitte, unless he switches spots with Burnett).\u00c2\u00a0 The lefty was in stunning form throughout the postseason last year and won MVP awards in both their Championship Series and World Series victories.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had something of a World Series hangover in 2009 though.\u00c2\u00a0 Again, he could turn up and blow the Yankees away or he could struggle to get through six innings.<\/p>\n
And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pedro Martinez: one of the greatest pitchers of the last twenty years. Now thirty-eight years old, Pedro isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the same guy that between 1997 and 2003 made pitching against the best hitters in the world look easy (his 118-36 win-loss record and 2.20 earned run average over that span would be unbelievable had so many millions of fans not been fortunate enough to witness it); however he showed in the NLCS against the Dodgers that he can still produce a strong performance when needed.\u00c2\u00a0 To say the former Red Sox ace has \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcprevious\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with the Yankees doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even begin to tell the full story and his scheduled start at Yankee Stadium tomorrow in Game Two is going to make for fascinating viewing.<\/p>\n
The relative question marks over the two pitching staffs do not extend to tonight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s series opener.\u00c2\u00a0 Both teams are able to start Game One with their best pitcher on the mound: Cliff Lee for the Phillies and CC Sabathia for the Yankees.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the annual awards that gets handed out in MLB is the Cy Young award for best pitcher in each league and in Sabathia (2007) and Lee (2008), we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the last two American League winners of that prestigious prize.\u00c2\u00a0 It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be much fun for Cleveland Indians fans to see their two former pitchers facing each other in the World Series.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of us can sit back and enjoy what should be a classic encounter: two top pitchers duelling against each other whilst facing intimidating batting lineups. Sabathia may well pitch again in Game Four (possibly also in Game Seven if needed), although either Joe Blanton or rookie J.A. Happ are more likely to take the mound for the Phillies in that game, with Lee expected to be kept back on normal rest for a possible Game Five.<\/p>\n
Let the series begin<\/h3>\n
First pitch is set for 23.57 GMT tonight and you can guarantee it will be well worth staying up for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2009 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees begins tonight (Wednesday 28) at 23.57 GMT. Get ready for all the action by reading our World Series primer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[25,66,98,99,65],"class_list":["post-5908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-espn-america","tag-mlb-tv","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7251,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions\/7251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"world-series2009\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/world-series2009.gif\" "\\"world-series2009\\"")
The 2009 World Series begins tonight at 23.57 GMT and it promises to be a fantastic contest between two excellent teams.\u00c2\u00a0 The Philadelphia Phillies are the reigning champions and return to the Fall Classic with many of the same hitters that won it all just twelve months ago.\u00c2\u00a0 The New York Yankees have history on their side, being the most successful franchise in U.S. sports with twenty-six World Series titles, and their star-studded roster has been designed purely with World Championship success in mind.\u00c2\u00a0 Both would be worthy champs, but only one can end the season celebrating.<\/p>\n