PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee dominated the Colorado Rockies as the Philadelphia Phillies began their World Series title defense with a 5-1 victory in their National League playoff opener Wednesday.
Raul Ibanez had two hits and two RBIs, and Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth drove in runs with key extra-base hits off Colorado’s 15-game-winning pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez.
Lee, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner who joined the Phillies from Cleveland mid-season, struck out five and had no walks in his first career playoff start.
He retired 16 straight batters at one point and only lost his bid for a shutout when Troy Tulowitzki doubled in a run with two outs in the ninth.
The hard-throwing Jimenez was equally impressive against the league’s No. 1-scoring offense for four innings, but ran out of gas in the fifth. He left with no outs in the sixth after allowing five runs.
In Los Angeles, the home team beat St. Louis, 5-3, in an NL playoff opener full of missed chances for both teams.
The teams set a division series record by stranding a combined 30 runners. The Dodgers left 16, including 12 in scoring position.
Pitching in the playoffs for the first time in his 11-year career, Dodgers starter Randy Wolf lasted 3 2-3 innings.
Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer off Carpenter in the first inning, giving the NL West champions the lead for good.
Offense was at a premium for both teams’ star sluggers. The Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez went 1 for 4 with double and a walk, while Albert Pujols was 0 for 3 with two intentional walks for the Cardinals.
Clayton Kershaw, another playoff rookie, starts for Los Angeles in Game 2 Thursday at Dodger Stadium against 19-game winner Adam Wainwright. Only once this season when Chris Carpenter and Wainwright started back-to-back did St. Louis lose both games.
Carpenter, who was the NL’s ERA leader while going 17-4 and went 2-0 against the Dodgers this season, gave up four runs in five innings.
In New York, Derek Jeter homered as New York romped over Minnesota, 7-2, in the opener of their American League series.
After Jeter’s third-inning homer off made it 2-2, Nick Swisher hit a go-ahead double in the fourth.
Even Alex Rodriguez broke out of his playoff rut against the tired Twins, who got into the playoffs with an epic one-game division tiebreaker against Detroit and only arrived at their New York hotel at 4 a.m.
Rodriguez had gone 0 for 29 in the postseason with runners on base dating to Game 4 of the 2004 AL championship series before an RBI single that made it 4-2 in the fifth. Rodriguez later hit an RBI single off the right-field wall in the seventh.
Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who had lost his last three playoff decisions for Cleveland and Milwaukee, allowed just one earned run in 6 2-3 innings. (AP)