Philadelphia at New York

The Philadelphia Phillies begin their quest to repeat as baseball's World Champions against the NY Yankees at the Stadium in game one. The Phillies will wheel out Cliff Lee, who has come up big since they acquired him from the Indians, but he will face off against a pitcher that is at the top of his game right now in CC Sabathia. Sabathia has been impossible to beat and aside from a season ending tuneup against Tampa Bay, the Yankees are now 14-0 in his last 14 starts and the last 13 have all been quality starts. Sabathia, discounting the meaningless finale against Tampa Bay, has pitched to an 0.74 ERA in his last five starts with opposing hitters batting .165. Lee has been tough in the post-season, but the Yankees lineup has a way of making a starter throw a lot of pitches and making an early exit because of pitch counts. The Yanks have the advantage here in many ways. They have been lights out at home where they have not only gone 5-0 in the playoffs, they have won their last 13 here vs teams with a winning record with the last loss occurring over two months ago. They have the starting pitching edge here, as well as the better pen and closer for game one. I'm going with the Yankees here.