Kings of New York offer a preview of coming attractions

NEW YORK

The game that ultimately decides the '09 World Series may actually have been played here in Yankee Stadium on Sunday night, disguised as Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

If the Yankees eventually win a long tough World Series from the Phils, think back to this night in the Bronx when New York not only avoided the possibility of losing a Game 7 to the Angels but also escaped with its pitching rotation in tact, not a wreck.

This Yankees' 5-2 victory over the Angels was an appropriate and classy inauguration of their $1.5 billion ballpark: just what a new house needs, a 40th American League pennant to fly in the foyer.

That flag, presented to the Bronx Bombers primarily by 37-year-old southpaw winner Andy Pettitte, was an enormous prize to be sure and cheered to the heavens by the biggest Bronx crowd so far in his park of 50,173. But it's true significance, and its deep urgency among the Yanks, may be more apparent as their Series against the Phillies begins here Wednesday.

The heroes for this evening were familiar -- especially Pettitte who, with 6 1/3 innings of one-run work became the first pitcher in history to have 16 postseason wins, and Mariano Rivera, who had the final six-out save without which no Yank celebration seems official. Johnny Damon had a two-run single and Alex Rodriguez had a bases-loaded walk in a three-run fourth inning that put the Yanks ahead for good.

After the Sandman's last strike put the Angels to sleep, he and catcher Jorge Posada had a marathon hug near the mound. The Bombers were finally back in the Series after a six-year exile -- several centuries in Yankee years. What suffering. Why not rejoice that, with a mere $423 million infusion of free agents, they could get the job done.

"The difference [from recent years] was that we had big players play big for us. Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Mariano," said Manager Joe Girardi. "We've had big players do big things." For a change, some would say.

"It's not a surprise that we are here," said Sabathia, the ALCS MVP with two wins and a 1.12 ERA. "We're a really good team and a close team. The guys who have been here so long and won so many times, they welcomed us in -- me, A.J. [Burnett], Mark [Texieria] and Nick [Swisher]." That's right, Swisher, too. For the Yanks, a 29-homer rightfielder is barley a hors d'oeurve.

Perhaps the truest test of these Yanks will be their showdown with the defending champ Phils who, with free agent slugger Raul Ibanez and the midseason addition of Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez have, by more conventional and less expensive baseball methods, built a team that is clearly stronger than their '08 version.

The true importance of this night, at least for earnest fans, is that it sets up a superior Series just as it should be. Though no Series that contains the Yanks is really played on a level field.

This was the win New York needed to set up their World Series rotation perfectly with the big three of Sabathia, Burnett then Pettitte working in that order against the Phillies' similarly impressive trio of 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner Lee, likely Hall of Famer Martinez and '08 World Series MVP Cole Hamels.