New York Sports

By JEFF CAPELLINI, WCBSTV.com Senior Sports Producer
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Imagine if you will A.J. Burnett going out there in Game 5 and outdueling Cliff Lee.

Not only would the Yankees have their 27th world championship and New York City yet another day of revelry along the Canyon of Heroes, Burnett would likely be your World Series MVP.

How's that for irony?

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We all know Burnett's dossier. When he's on he's amazing. When he's off he's just another extremely overpaid professional athlete. Yankees fans expected a lot more of the former than the latter this season, but were for the most part extremely disappointed. Signing Burnett seemed like something out of the 1980s. You know how it goes -- big name, big money, little return, later remembered in the same vain as Ed Whitson ... that sort of thing.

But Burnett seems to have some magic in that powerful right arm right now. He was utterly devastating in Game 2 and likely saved the Yankees' season with his seven-inning, one-run performance. While to some it appeared to come out of left field, the truth is an effort like that was just waiting to go public. We all knew he had it in him. He's shown it before. He just didn't show it enough from April through the first two rounds of the postseason for anyone in the Universe to be convinced it would ever make an appearance again.

Well, despite the fact that the fanbase can't be blamed for assuming the worst with this guy, he proved everyone wrong.

Now it's time for him to do it again -- on just three days' rest against a pitcher in Lee who is performing on an entirely different level right now, and against a lineup that can explode at any given moment.

For my money, Johnny Damon is the World Series MVP right now. Despite a so-so .294 average in the World Series -- .254 in the entire playoffs -- Damon had the biggest hit of Game 3 and his at-bat and subsequent base running in the top of the 9th inning of Game 4 on Sunday will be talked about in Yankees circles for the rest of time.

But Burnett has a chance to etch his name right up there with the greatest big-game pitchers in Bombers postseason history with his effort on Monday. If he is better than Lee and the Yankees clinch the title, it will be nearly impossible, in my opinion, to overlook him for the MVP.

More importantly, Burnett will finally become a Yankee. You need a title to be part of the club. Without one, you're just renting the uniform. There's only four true pinstripers on this roster and we all know who they are. Burnett's right arm may very well hold the key to guys like Damon, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, etc., finally earning their respective places in the land of Yankees immortality.

To do it will be no easy task. Lee was absolutely scintillating in Game 1, hurling a six-hitter with 10 strikeouts in the Phillies' 6-1 win. Right now, the Lee trade -- him coming over from Cleveland prior to the deadline -- is one of the best in baseball history, regardless if the Phillies come all the way back to win this thing or not.

He's that good and his presence on the mound makes Philly a totally different team.

So, even though Burnett shouldn't really worry about what Lee is doing, he sort of has to. Burnett must pitch to the scoreboard. He must figure out a way to prevent the Phillies from establishing any momentum. He has to keep Ryan Howard guessing up there, further the slugger's run toward automatic induction into the postseason Hall of Shame. He has to contain Chase Utley, who may try to mistake him for CC Sabathia.

The key for Burnett is two-fold. He has to throw strike one like he did in Game 2. He was ahead of just about everyone. Secondly, he has to hope that curveball/slider combination, which was so deadly in his last outing, shows up again. I'm not sure if we can demand greatness on three days' rest from Burnett, but if he can somehow keep this thing close into the late innings he will have more than done his job. And regardless if he gets the win in a Yankees victory, he will be most valuable to everyone who calls the Bombers their team.

A lot has been said of Charlie Manuel's decision to not pitch Lee on three days' rest in Game 4 against Sabathia, a move that backfired badly and may have sunk the Phillies' chances. I said it would back when I first heard about it. On Sunday night at the postgame press conference a clearly annoyed Manuel snapped a bit when asked about it, adding he wouldn't have started Lee even if the left-hander had begged him.

Does that make Manuel a bad manager? Not right now, but if his ace on full rest is somehow outpitched by Burnett on short rest how will that make him look?

Besides becoming a first-time world champion and forever being enshrined as a true member of the Yankee empire, Burnett can and should do one more thing if he's victorious on Monday night.

In the postgame interview with Fox or Yes or anyone else who wants his first words upon becoming an immortal, he should, in no particular order, thank George Steinbrenner, his teammates and the fans.

And then he should pie himself.

Because he will have most definitely earned it.

 Email Jeff Your Thoughts

For complete World Series coverage, be sure to check out WCBSTV.com's World Series section.



 

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