PHILADELPHIA -- Knowing he would be pitching with a chance to clinch the World Series championship, A.J. Burnett said he was barely bothered by the idea of going on three days' rest. He had done it in the regular season with great success.
"Well, without sounding too confident, I liked it when I did it in the past," Burnett said after Game 4.
Three batters into Game 5, Burnett didn't like it as much.
The Phillies jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first inning, and knocked Burnett out of the game four batters into the third of an 8-6 victory that sent the Series back to New York.
Burnett allowed six runs over two innings. His control was missing from the very start of the game, and he walked four batters and hit one. Three of those five runners eventually scored.
"I don't think it bothered me at all," Burnett said of pitching on short rest. "It's a matter of throwing strikes."
It was the shortest outing for a starter in the World Series since Game 1 in 2005, when Houston's Roger Clemens lasted just two innings against the Chicago White Sox.
This was the risk Yankees manager Joe Girardi took when he eschewed a conventional four-man rotation and decided to stick with his ace, CC Sabathia, on three days' rest in Game 4. Sabathia did just fine, allowing three runs in 62/3 innings.
But then the pressure shifted to Burnett and Andy Pettitte, who will start Game 6. Once Girardi committed to a three-man rotation, Burnett and Pettitte would have to pitch on short rest, too.
The last team to win a World Series using only three starters in the entire postseason was the 1991 Minnesota Twins.
The Yankees also are the first team to use a three-man rotation in the postseason since the 1992 Atlanta Braves.
Pettitte, 37, last started on three days' rest on Sept. 30, 2006.
With a lead of three games to one, Girardi said before Game 5 that he had briefly deliberated on starting Chad Gaudin, instead of Burnett on three days' rest. Thus, even if the Yankees lost with Gaudin (who has pitched just one inning in the postseason), Burnett and Pettitte could come back on normal rest.
"With CC only throwing about 100 pitches, we feel good about that," Girardi said before Game 5. "A.J. feels good, and we feel good about A.J. going out there. So we feel that this is the right move, and that's why we did it."
That plan backfired in a big way.
Burnett said after Game 4 that every time he had thrown on three days' rest, his body had felt great. In three career starts on three days' rest before last night, he was 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA.
It was obvious early that Burnett did not possess the pinpoint control he had in Game 2, when he struck out nine and walked two in a one-run, seven-inning performance.
Jimmy Rollins singled to lead off the game. Shane Victorino squared around to bunt and took a 95-mph fastball on his right hand. Chase Utley followed, and, looking for a fastball, crushed the one he got on the first pitch for a three-run home run.
In the third, Burnett walked Utley and Ryan Howard to begin the inning. Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez hit consecutive run-scoring singles to make it a 5-1 lead.
Burnett's night was over. And the Yankees' rotation was dealt a serious blow.
"I feel strong, I feel great," he said afterward. "I just didn't get it done."
___
(c) 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
