Jimmy, Vic, Chase, Ryan: 1 for 13.

Game, set, match.

The unpredictable AJ Burnett didn’t bring bad AJ with him tonight. He also didn’t bring good AJ to Yankee Stadium. He brought practically unhittable AJ to the park with impressive results in a game the Yankees had to win.

The Phils again gave Pedro Martinez NOTHING in terms of run support and they forced the “crafty righthander” to be nearly perfect. While Pedro was good, he is no longer the kind of guy who can throw up zeroes inning after inning after inning. Eventually he’s going to get touched for a couple of runs.

This is not time to overreact to one loss or overly dissect some of the key moments in this game. But we will for a minute anyway.

Jayson Werth lead off single in the top of the 4th with the Phils leading 1-0. Before you could tweet about how awesome it was, Werth was picked off after straying too far off first. Dammit. Next half inning, Teixeira long ball. Phils never scored again.

In the bottom of the 7th, should Pedro have come back in to pitch? Perhaps not, but it was hardly a “Grady Little” moment as some of the lazy journos would have you believe. The lead had already been relinquished on a Hideki Matsui solo shot in the 6th and Pedro was facing the shitend of the Yankee order. I don’t blame Charlie for thinking that Pedro could get out the likes of Hairston, Cabrera and Molina.

Since Joe Girardi has no one else he has an ounce of faith in out in the Yankee bullpen, he summoned Mariano Rivera for a 2 inning save. Rivera was hardly unhittable. In both the 8th and the 9th, the Phils got the tying or go ahead run into the batter’s box. Chase Utley grounded into a doubleplay to end the threat in the 8th (he was safe, but that’s an entirely different issue).

The Phillies went to New York looking to split. But after winning Game 1, you get greedy and you want Game 2, especially with the shaky Cole Hamels on the mound on Saturday night in South Philly. That said, a split still puts the Phillies in good position heading home to Philly. The goal in Philly of course is to never head back on the Amtrak to New York, courtesy of yet another 3 game home sweep to end a best of seven series. Taking 2 of 3 and going back to New York up 3 games to 2 would be ok, also.

I’m already over this game. I felt worse after letting Game 2 of the NLCS slip away. Time for Cole Hamels to show up and deal on Saturday night.

A couple other thoughts.

1. Pedro Feliz? Just killing us.

2. I like that Jay-Z song he performed, but it was a shitty performance and the sound was awful.

3. Ok, I am really not over this game yet. We coulda gone up 2-0 and we were facing a guy we should have touched for more than 1 run.

4. The second guessing of umps on those 2 plays tonight is a bit much. Both were extremely close calls.