Cliff Lee’s evil arsenal and control good enough to consistently hit a gnat’s backside combined with Chase Utley’s biceps to put the Yankees in a World Series ditch last night in Game 1.
Lee handcuffed the high-powered Yankees lineup across nine innings, turning it into “The Dead Bat Society,” and Utley homered twice off CC Sabathia to lead the Phillies to a 6-1 victory that was witnessed by a Yankee Stadium crowd of 50,207 that had nothing to get excited about.
“You have to tip your hat to the other guy,” Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “That’s the best pitching performance we have seen all year.”
AUDIO: Yanks bombed by Phillies (Joe Girardi)
Lee went the distance, gave up an unearned run in the ninth, didn’t issue a walk and fanned 10. He is 3-0 with a 0.54 ERA in four postseason starts.
“He pitched really well, if he is going to pitch like that, you aren’t going to score many runs,” said Mark Teixeira, who fanned twice.
Especially when your three, four and five hitters go a combined 1-for-12 with the hit being a one-out single by Jorge Posada in the second inning.
“He threw the ball to both sides of the plate,” said Alex Rodriguez, who went 0-for-4 and fanned three times in his first World Series game. “CC pitched well enough to win. We didn’t swing the bats well.”
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Billed as a matchup of lefty aces who are close friends and former Cleveland teammates, Lee delivered a gem. And while Sabathia wasn’t bad, he wasn’t satisfied.
“We lost and I didn’t pitch well, I had three walks and I was behind everybody pretty much the whole game,” said Sabathia, who gave up two runs and four hits in seven frames. “That’s not the way you pitch in the postseason.”
Utley homered into the right-field seats on a 3-2, 95-mph fastball in the third and crushed a 96-mph, 0-2 heater into the right-field bleachers in the sixth for the defending World Series champions. They were the first two homers to a lefty given up by Sabathia at Yankee Stadium this year.
Game 2 is tonight, when longtime enemy Pedro Martinez, who put on an entertaining show in the interview room yesterday, throws against A.J. Burnett.
Lee’s complete-game gem kept the shaky Phillies bullpen out of play. Three of the six Yankees’ hits belonged to Derek Jeter.
“Winning Game 1 is huge, it’s a seven-game series and getting that first one out of the way is big for us,” Lee said. “Now we’ve got a chance to take both of them and go into Philly in a real good spot.”
Lee lost the shutout in the ninth thanks to a Jimmy Rollins’ throwing error while attempting to turn a double play.
After walking Rollins and Shane Victorino to start the eighth inning and continue a shaky postseason, Phil Hughes was lifted for lefty Damaso Marte and received a smattering of boos on the way to the dugout.
Marte fanned Utley and retired Ryan Howard on a fly to right. David Robertson surfaced to face Jayson Werth with runners at the corners. A four-pitch walk loaded the bases for lefty-swinging Raul Ibanez. With lefty Phil Coke not throwing in the pen, Robertson gave up a two-run ground single that hiked the Phillies’ lead to 4-0.
Two runs off Brian Bruney in the ninth accounted for the final two tallies.
The Yankees led the majors in walks (663) during the regular season, but Lee didn’t issue a free pass. It was the fourth game this year — including the postseason — that the Yankees didn’t draw at least one walk.
Asked what tonight’s Game 2, means, Rodriguez said, “It’s big. We need to win obviously and take it to Philly 1-1 and it’s a seven-game series. Today was a tough one.”
george.king@nypost.com