In all, the Phillies used five relief pitchers to try to stop the fatal hemorrhage that started as a trickle with starter Pedro Martinez.
Pedro Martinez faltered early in the second inning when, after multiple deep fly balls and close calls, Hideki Matsui blasted a two-run shot. The bullpen got fidgety then, but remained in its shell.
Even after a third inning in which Martinez filled the bases and allowed a two-run single to Matsui, Charlie Manuel didn't call on the bullpen. It wasn't until the fifth inning that the normal firefighters, starting with Chad Durbin, were phoned from the dugout.
"[Matsui] was on everything we threw up," Manuel said. "Basically, the two hits he got off Pedro were fastballs. Off 'Happy,' he hit a slider. He had a big night."
It was a night that the Phillies needed Martinez to be good if not great. They needed him to be serviceable. They knew that Martinez, good or bad, wouldn't last deep into the New York night.
The bullpen, on the other hand, needed to be great - not good. Last night, it was neither.
"Baseball is always a learning experience,'' said closer Brad Lidge, who blew 11 save chances in the regular season and did not pitch in Game 6. "If you're here long enough, you're going to have a bad year.''
Durbin got behind, on a 2-1 count, against Yankees captain Derek Jeter. On the next pitch, Jeter belted a ground-rule double that was just a few feet away from turning a 4-1 New York lead into 5-1.
Mark Teixeira swatted a single two batters later to do that. Alex Rodriguez walked, ending Durbin's night.
Happ was brought in to try to solve Matsui with a left-on-left matchup. He couldn't. Matsui's double to deep center brought in Teixeira and Rodriguez to make it 7-1.
"You're not going to find an excuse from me," Happ said. "You've got to find a way. I had no excuses. I gave everything I could."
