Yankees win 2009 World Series four games to two

What a year. 103 regular season wins. 11 postseason wins. And now a 27th World Championship.

The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 to win the 2009 World Series four games to two, ending a nine-year title drought for New York.

In an outing many seemed unnecessarily concerned over, Andy Pettitte pitched as well as anyone could have hoped on three days’ rest, tossing 5 2/3 innings of four-hit, three-run ball, with five walks and three strikeouts. In picking up the Game 6 victory, Pettitte nailed down every clinching win for the Yanks in 2009: AL East title, Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series.

The Yankees jumped on Philly starter Pedro Martinez early, as Hideki Matsui followed an A-Rod leadoff walk in the bottom of the 2nd with a huge eight-pitch at-bat that led to a mammoth home run to the second deck in right field. Up 2-0, the Yankees would never look back.

While the Phillies would cut the lead in half the following inning, Matsui went right back to work in the bottom half, plating two more runs on a big bases-loaded single to extend the Yankee lead to 4-1.

The Yankees drove Pedro out of the game after a mere four innings, and greeted reliever Chad Durbin rudely, as Matsui added two more RBI to his Game 6 ledger in the bottom of the 5th on a booming double, bringing his game total to a World Series-record tying 6.

Pettitte ran into a spot of trouble in the 6th, walking Chase Utley in front of a Ryan Howard two-run home run, but on the whole was highly effective against a potent Phillies lineup. Joba Chamberlain came in to get the last out of the 6th and collected two outs in the 7th before yielding to the newly awesome Damaso Marte, who picked up a huge strikeout of Chase Utley. Marte got one out in the 8th before turning the ball over to Mariano Rivera, who did what he’s done for the Yankees so many times before: got five outs, and locked down a World Championship.

And so the best team in baseball won the World Series, and also . While Hideki Matsui deservedly won the World Series MVP, batting a ridiculous .615/.653/1.385 in only 13 at-bats, the Yankees never would have been in position to win this title without Alex Rodriguez, who finally silenced his critics, hitting six tremendous home runs while posting a .365/.500/.808 line in the postseason. That’s right, Alex got on base in half his at-bats. What’s up now, haters.

I once again had the good fortune of watching this wonderful Yankee victory with our winning Game 3 crew — , , , and this time as well — and boy did we ever soak up the victory, smoking victory cigars, sipping champagne and singing “New York, New York” until no one was left at Blondie’s. I have to say, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to watch the Yankees win #27 with two of the guys from one of the blogs I’ve been reading multiple times daily for the last three years, and it was truly awesome.

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