A.J. Burnett doesn’t have the luxury of a series lead or the leeway to struggle at all tonight.
Last night in Game 1 of the World Series, CC Sabathia pitched well, surrendering just two runs in the Yankees’ 6-1 loss at the Stadium. But Sabathia still took a loss, putting the Yankees in a 1-0 series hole and putting a sizeable amount of pressure on Burnett for Game 2 tonight.
Burnett, who is facing Pedro Martinez, is working on an $82.5 million contract, so it’s not as if the added pressure is an unfair burden to him. Nevertheless, it also is Burnett’s first career World Series start.
During the season, Burnett started 13 times after a Yankees loss, and he responded pretty well. Burnett himself went 6-3 with a 4.43 ERA, leading the Yankees to eight wins in the 13 games.
Tonight, the fireballing right-hander will need to try to do a better job of stopping the Phillies offense than he did on May 22. That day, the Phillies torched Burnett for eight hits, five runs and a season-worst-tying three homers in six innings en route to a 7-3 loss.
How bad was it for Burnett? Jimmy Rollins blasted his first pitch over the wall.
“I don’t remember a lot,” Burnett said yesterday. “I know first [batter] hit [a] homer, I believe, but that’s a long time ago, and I’ll go look at the tape and make the adjustments that I need to make.”
Burnett, who opposes Pedro Martinez tonight, also was taken deep that day by Carlos Ruiz (two-run shot) and Jayson Werth (two-run shot). So all five of the runs he gave up came from home runs.
Burnett still is searching for his first playoff win, but also still looking for his first playoff loss. In his three postseason starts this October, he pitched well in the first two (three runs in 12 1/3 innings) before having a poor ALCS Game 5 (six runs in six innings). In that outing, in which the Angels scored four runs in the first inning, Burnett said he was a little “careless from the get-go, just throwing balls over the middle to get strike one.”
Burnett, who would be willing to pitch on short rest later in the series, said he is excited about his first career World Series start.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited,” Burnett said. “I’m going to prepare, yeah, maybe, as another game, but deep down I know what it’s about. I know how real it is, and I don’t want to change it. I want to go out there knowing it’s my first World Series start.” mark.hale@nypost.com