Can Yankees Recover From Cliff Lee’s Gem?

ESPN’s Buster Olney wonders if Cliff Lee’s dominating performance in Game 1 will affect the Yankee hitters going forward:

“It was only one game, but time will tell if this game will create some anxiety in the Yankees’ hitters, knowing that they’re now behind in the Series, trying to do more than they can in a given at-bat, and knowing that they have to face Lee at least one more time.”

Will the Yankee hitters continue to struggle? Or is momentum, as the saying goes, only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher?

Olney lists several games that rank with Lee’s 2009 Game 1. Some of these games, such as Florida’s Josh Beckett winning Game 6 in 2003, concluded the World Series. Two performances that Olney mentions came in Game 1 and three came somewhere in the middle of the Series. A look at the aftermath of these games shows that, for the losing teams, hitting woes generally continued:

1956 Game 5
Yankees 2, Dodgers 0: Don Larsen pitches perfect game.

Dodger hitters scored a total of 19 runs in the first two games, which were played in Brooklyn. But once the series shifted to the Bronx, the Dodgers scored only five runs total in Games 3 and 4 before Larsen shut them down entirely in Game 5.

The Dodgers scored only one more run the rest of the Series. Game 6, back in Brooklyn, was scoreless until Jackie Robinson singled home a run in the bottom of the tenth to give the Dodgers a 1-0 win. Brooklyn went on to lose Game 7, 9-0.

1963 Game 1
Dodgers 5, Yankees 2: Sandy Koufax sets new World Series record with 15 strikeouts.

The only runs Koufax allowed came on a two-run homer in the eighth by the Yankees’ Tom Tresh as he outdueled Yankee ace Whitey Ford.

The Yankees would score only two more runs the rest of the series. Johnny Podres shut out the Yankees going into the ninth inning of Game 2 before Hector Lopez doubled and reliever Ron Perranoski gave up a single to Elston Howard to score Lopez. The Dodgers won the game, 4-1.

In Game 3, Drysdale shut out the Yankees, 1-0.

Koufax completed the Dodger sweep in Game 4, striking out eight in a 2-1 Dodger win. The only Yankee run came on a home run by Mickey Mantle.

2001 Game 2
Diamondbacks 4, Yankees 0: Randy Johnson fans 11 while allowing three hits and one walk.

With Johnson and Curt Schillling starting five games, the Yankees scored only 14 runs in this seven-game series, five of which came off of hapless reliever Byung Hyun Kim.

2006 Game 3
Cardinals 5, Tigers 0 – Chris Carpenter allows three hits, no walks and strikes out six in eight inning.

The Tigers scored five runs in games 1 and 2 and six runs in games 4 and 5 of the five-game series, so Carpenter’s performance does not appear to have affected their hitting one in subsequent games.

So far, the losing team in the great pitching performance did not recover their hitting stroke and went on to lose the Series, though in both 1963 and 2001 that had a lot to do with having to face multiple Hall-of-Fame caliber pitchers.

The one exception to the trend came in 1968:

1968 Game 1
Cardinals 4, Tigers 0: Bob Gibson sets new World Series record with 17 strikeouts

Gibson allowed five hits and walked only one in beating 31-game winner Denny McLain, who only lasted five innings.

But the Tigers came back in Game 2 behind Mickey Lolich to beat Nelson Briles and the Cardinals, 8-1. In that game, Cardinal reliever Steve Carlton allowed two runs and four hits in one inning of work. The Cardinals won Game 3, 7-3.

Gibson shut down the Tigers again in Game 4, 10-1. The only Tiger run came on a homer by Jim Northrup. McLain was knocked out in the third inning.

At this point, the Cardinals led the series, 3 games to 1. Cardinals ace Gibson had pitched two great games, while Tigers ace McLain was having a miserable Series. It seemed unlikely that the Tigers would win the next three games, especially with Gibson waiting in Game 7.

But the Tigers won Game 5 behind Lolich, 5-3. McLain, pitching on two days rest after his 2 2/3 IP Game 4, won Game 6, 13-1.

In Game 7, Lolich, who had pitched a complete game in Game 5, came back on two days rest to face Gibson. The future Hall of Famer had won his last six World Series starts over the 1964, 1967 and 1968 Series, including two Game 7s. The game was scoreless until the seventh, when the Tigers scored three runs, highlighted by a two-run triple by Northrup. Detroit went on to defeat the great Gibson, 4-1, and take the Series, four games to three.

In 2009′s Game 1, Lee looked unbeatable, but even if he pitches in Game 4 and again defeats Sabathia, and even if the Yankee ace is shelled in that game, the 1968 World Series shows that it would still be possible for the Bombers to win the Series.

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Photo of 1972 Bob Gibson baseball card by cthoyes.