Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Times reporters David Waldstein, Tyler Kepner, Ben Shpigel, Jack Curry and Richard Sandomir provided updates and analysis during Game 6 of the Yankees-Phillies World Series in the Bronx.



A season of redemption came to its conclusion Wednesday night for the Yankees, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6 of the 2009 World Series. The victory gave the Yankees their 27th championship, a quest nine years in the making.

Hideki Matsui, who may have played his last game as a Yankee, became the first Japanese-born player to win the Most Valuable Player award. He led the Yankees’ offense with a record-tying night — he had a home run, a double, a single and six runs batted in — and Andy Pettitte, who also may have played his last game in pinstripes, handled the pitching chores on three days’ rest.

Pettitte, a veteran left-hander, threw five and two-thirds solid innings, allowing three runs on four hits. He earned his fifth World Series ring with his second victory of the 105th World Series, which began and ended in the Bronx, in the first year of the new Yankee Stadium.

Yankees Manager Joe Girardi, who last season failed to take the team to the postseason in his first year in charge, became the first Yankees manager not named Joe Torre to win a World Series in 31 years. He was questioned for going with a three-man rotation in the postseason, but it worked perfectly as the Yankees went 11-4 and outpitched and outplayed the opposition.

Alex Rodriguez, who has faced withering criticism over his 16-year career for never having ultimate success in the postseason, won his first championship, and although he didn’t do much in the World Series, he carried the Yankees through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

General Manager Brian Cashman, who has been blamed for various moves since the Yankees last won the World Series, in 2000, signed C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett over the winter with money from the Steinbrenner family chest. It proved to be the difference, and Cashman stood behind Girardi after his disappointing inaugural season.

Matsui, who joined the Yankees in 2003, when they lost to the Florida Marlins in the World Series, tied Bobby Richardson’s record of six R.B.I. in a World Series game. He went 3 for 4 and finished the series with six hits in his final nine at-bats, including three home runs.

Pedro Martinez did not pitch well for the Phillies, allowing four runs on three hits in four innings, including Matsui’s home run in the second and his two-run single in the third.

Mariano Rivera, who was on the mound at Shea Stadium the last time the Yankees won the World Series, secured the final five outs, although he did not get his third save of the World Series because of the four-run lead. Rivera, along with Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Pettitte, won his fifth championship with the Yankees. — DW

The on-field celebration of the Yankees’ 7-3 victory was properly covered by Fox as a team event, not one replete with crowd shots.

After Shane Victorino grounded out to end the game, Fox showed the pulsing group of Yankees who gathered and jumped in the infield. They were seen from 10 different angles before the first cut was made to the Phillies’ dugout. A subsequent sequence of 10 more replays of the final out culminated with isolated shots of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. — RS

We go to the ninth inning. Three more outs, Yankees fans, and we don’t expect a repeat of Game 7, 2001. It’s starting to looking a lot like 2000 at Yankee Stadium. — DW

After Fox cameras at Yankee Stadium showed a montage of celebrities in the crowd — Jimmy Fallon, Kurt Russell, Donald Trump, Regis Philbin and Spike Lee, Joe Buck said: “I’ll give Spike credit; he wore all that Yankee stuff in Philadelphia.”

What else would he be wearing and why should he get credit for sporting exactly what a sports fan would expect him to wear?

Whether in New York or Philadelphia, Lee is instantly recognizable as a film director and obsessed New York sports fan, most notably, even infamously, of the Knicks. It would make little sense for Lee to act unobtrusively in Citizens Bank Park. After all, he showed up in Knicks regalia at a hostile Market Square Arena in Indianapolis during those heated mid-1990s Knicks-Pacers playoff series. — RS

Mariano Rivera is coming into the game with one out in the eighth inning, so game over. Marte certainly did his job and then some. He struck out Utley in the seventh and he just struck out Howard, who is now the official World Series strikeout king with 13. Willie Wilson is off the hook. — DW

Incredible as it may seem, Eyre struck out Matsui, thanks in part to Gorman, who once again called a check swing a strike from third base. Here’s some numbers on Matsui:

He has eight R.B.I. in the Series, the most for a Yankee since Reggie Jackson had eight in both the 1977 and 1978 World Series. Matsui (Mr. October-san) has six hits in his last nine at-bats, with two singles, a double and three home runs.

It’s 7-3, Yankees, in the top of the eighth. Marte, who relieved Chamberlain with two outs in the seventh, is back on the mound for the Yankees. — DW

Matsui is coming to bat again in the seventh inning, so the Phillies are bringing in the left-hander Scott Eyre to face him, as if that’s going to do anything. One more R.B.I. and Matsui breaks Bobby Richardson’s World Series record of six. He gets a huge ovation as he comes to the plate. — DW

Marte strikes out Utley on an appealed check-swing, third-strike call by the third base umpire Brian Gorman, and the threat is over. Marte, Girardi’s new left-handed specialist, first threw a fastball low and outside for strike one, then looped a curveball in for strike two. Gutsy pitching. Ryan Howard will be up first in the eighth, so Marte could stay in, with Rivera possibly ready to come in soon after. — DW

Joba Chamberlain is still on the mound for the Yankees. With a four-run lead, he’ll get some latitude before the Yankees call on Mariano Rivera to close it out. Chamberlain looks strong, but we wrote those very words right before he gave up the home run in Game 4. And what do you know, Carlos Ruiz singled. Chamberlain walked Victorino, so the left-hander Damaso Marte is coming in to face Utley. Utley has five home runs in the series, four of them off left-handers. Two on, two outs in the seventh. 7-3, Yankees. — DW

With the Yankees leading, 7-3, it’s reasonable to think that they will win tonight and that a trophy ceremony in their clubhouse will follow. If the middle relievers don’t melt down, it will be the first World Series celebrated since 1996 with George Steinbrenner in a full public retreat. No doubt, his son Hal Steinbrenner will accept the Commissioner’s Trophy, made by Tiffany & Company, with Randy Levine, the team president, and Lonn Trost, the chief operating officer, alongside him.

A Bossless celebration reminded me of something he said to me six years ago amidst rumors he might retire: ”I didn’t say I’d step aside, but there will come a time in the not-too-distant future when I’m going to step aside and let the young elephants in the tent.” He added, “What I mean is that the young elephants, the young sons and the son-in-law, will be more and more active.” The elephants, it appears, have arrived in the Bronx. — RS

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

With Chase Utley on base after a walk in the sixth, Ryan Howard hit an opposite-field home run on a pitch high and on the outer third of the plate. The score is 7-3. Pettitte struck out Jayson Werth looking, but Raul Ibanez doubled, and that’s all for Pettitte. Joba Chamberlain is on the hill warming up. Pettitte received a loud standing ovation. The fans erupted as he jogged off and then gave a wave with his cap. Was that Pettitte’s last pitch as a Yankee? Hopefully not. — DW

Hideki Matsui ties Bobby Richardson’s record for R.B.I. in a World Series game, with six. — TK, via Twitter

The reigning World’s Most Dangerous Hitter just whacked one off the wall for a two-run double. Matsui now has a two-run homer, a two-run single and a two-run double for six R.B.I. as the Yankees lead, 7-1. M.V.P.? — DW

Chad Durbin is gone and the left-hander J.A. Happ is on the mound to face Matsui, the most dangerous hitter in the world at this moment. — DW

The Yankees are now up, 5-1. Jeter led off with a ground-rule double against reliever Chad Durbin, and moved to third on a sacrifice by Hairston. Teixeira then singled to right to drive in Jeter. Martinez could have done that. — DW

Pettitte is really pitching well. He gave up a one-out walk to Ruiz, but got Rollins to hit into a double play, so he’s safe through five.

As for Martinez, he’s done, allowing four runs in four innings. Chad Durbin is pitching now, which is too bad because A) we don’t get to see Pedro walk off the mound to a serenade of “Who’s Your Daddy?” and B) because he would have had to face Hairston, who hits him well. I asked Hairston on Tuesday if Martinez had ever thrown at him and Hairston said he had.

“He’s buzzed the tower a few times,” he said.

But Hairston said he didn’t mind because his grandfather, a former major leaguer, used to throw at Jerry Jr. in the backyard to toughen him up. “I got used to it,” he said. “I am not afraid of getting hit at all.” — DW

Good lipreading by Tim McCarver: In the fourth, Andy Pettitte lowered his glove from his mouth, spoke to catcher Jorge Posada, and McCarver said, “Looked like he said, ‘back door slider.’ ” That appeared to be the pitch to Pedro Feliz (mlb.com‘s Gameday said it was a cutter).

McCarver said the “problem was that the hitter sees it, too.” Of course. (In the bottom half of the fourth, he returned to the sequence and amended what he thought Pettitte said to, “Back door cutter.”) The lipreading raised an unanswered question: What sort of semaphoric miscommunication would prompt Pettitte to announce his pitch selection rather than choose from a selection of Posada’s fingers? — RS

Andy Pettitte just pitched his way out of a jam after walking two men with two outs. He finally got Pedro Feliz to ground out to Alex Rodriguez, but it looked as if he had thrown four strikes to Raul Ibanez first. O.K., enough whining about the umpiring. Pettitte has thrown 62 pitches. The Yankees still lead, 4-1, and Pedro Martinez is still in the game. Can he really last beyond this inning? Chad Durbin is warming up. — DW

One thing about Andy Pettitte: even though his command is not as precise as he may like, he is not giving the Phillies anything good to hit. The slider he used to strike out Utley probably would have been a called strike on the outside edge — a tough pitch for a left-handed hitter.

But at the same time, Pettitte seems to be getting squeezed a little bit, but at least the plate umpire Joe West has been consistent: the 2-0 fastball to Pedro Feliz that was called a strike hit the same corner (or at least West thought it did) as Martinez’s called third strike to A-Rod in the third. — BS

An analyst can enter a danger zone by being too precise in his assertions and having them proved wrong. Not that analysts shouldn’t go out on a limb, but appearing close to being dogmatic can be risky. In the second inning, Tim McCarver said that Pedro Martinez was “pretty much” locked into an 85 m.p.h. fastball. “If you don’t have a fastball in the first couple of innings, it won’t get much faster,” he said.

But subsequent pitches climbed to 86, 87 and 88 m.p.h. and, by the third inning, to 90 m.p.h. Not Nolan Ryan fire — and not all that meaningful, because the Yankees were leading, 4-1. But Joe Buck noticed, saying, “So his velocity has steadily gotten better” after Hideki Matsui slammed a 90 m.p.h. fastball foul in the third. — RS

Al Bello/Getty Images

Johnny Damon has left the game with a strained calf, which he injured running home on Matsui’s two-run single in the third. Jerry Hairston Jr. is in left and batting second. — DW

Quiz time: What’s better, a two-run homer or a two-out single with the bases loaded? Same thing, and Matsui has them both. He just stroked a high fastball to center to drive in Jeter and Damon, and the Yankees lead by 4-1. Matsui has all four runs batted in. Again, the Yankees have to keep Matsui. This cannot be his last game as a Yankee. — DW

A-Rod strikes out looking (Joe West will call those pitches on that side of the plate, as long as they are down), but here comes Matsui, looking for his third home run against Martinez … or just a base hit. — DW

Martinez just hit Mark Teixeira to load the bases with one out in the third inning, with A-Rod coming up. Even before that, J.A. Happ was warming up. — DW

Note to Joe West: home plate is the white thing in the ground in front of the catcher. It is 17 inches wide. — DW

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

The Phillies get one back as Jimmy Rollins hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Carlos Ruiz, who had tripled with one out.

And how about the bounce on Ruiz’s triple? It hit the wall in right-center and then scooted back toward center with Brett Gardner running back after it. It looked as if he was chasing a white mouse. Pettitte gets Victorino to pop out, but it’s 2-1, Yankees, now. — DW

The Japanese reporters that cover Hideki Matsui are obsessed with knowing whether the Yankees will re-sign him for next season. I can’t blame them. If Matsui is not with the Yankees, the reporters who have covered him in New York for the last seven seasons will not stay here, either. If Matsui’s address changes, their addresses will change, too.

Before Matsui even finished rounding the bases with his two-run homer in the second inning, I thought of those reporters who have politely asked me if I think the Yankees will bring Matsui back. When I asked General Manager Brian Cashman about Matsui toward the end of the season, he was noncommittal. Matsui’s solid postseason will help him, but his inability to play the outfield will hurt him. The Yankees don’t want to clog the D.H. spot with one player. — JC

I’m a bit confused. I like the Fox graphic toy that shows pitch speed at release and at home plate, and then the batter’s reaction time. But can you calculate reaction time if you don’t swing? A few pitches before Hideki Matsui hit his two-run homer in the second inning, a pitch from Pedro Martinez was timed at 83 m.p.h. at its release and 76 m.p.h. at the plate. Matsui’s reaction time was then displayed at .463 of a second. But he didn’t swing. He moved slightly. Maybe Godzilla exhaled with great vim and vigor. — RS

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Designated hitter Hideki Matsui took Pedro Martinez deep again in a classic at-bat. Martinez was ahead, 0-2, before Matsui worked the count full in an eight-pitch at-bat and then sent a tailing fastball high and over the middle of the plate into the stands. Alex Rodriguez walked and scored in front of Matsui, who also homered off Martinez in Game 2. The Yankees really should bring this guy back, knees or no knees. — DW

During the workout Tuesday, some of the Yankees dismissed the idea that the Phillies had put some pressure on them by winning Game 5. In fact, Jerry Hairston Jr. said the Yankees were pleased with their overall accomplishments in Philadelphia.

“Do you know how good those guys play at home?” Hairston said. “For us to go there and take two out of three against a great team, the defending champs in a hostile environment, that’s a big plus for us, a big positive.”

But the Phillies are better on the road. They come into the game with a 4-2 road record in the postseason. They also had a better record on the road in the regular season than they did at home, going 45-36 at Citizens Bank Park and 48-33 on the road, including a 2-1 record at Yankee Stadium in May. — DW

Statistics can be expressed in interesting, if dubious, ways. In the second inning, Fox’s Tim McCarver said that one thing that Yankees pitchers have done was “neutralize” the Phillies’ left-handed bats. “Except for Chase Utley,” he added. Quite a big exception, considering that Utley’s six-hit output includes five home runs.

I would have been interested in hearing the Phillies’ combined average against Yankees left-handers, but McCarver added only that the Phillies’ left-handers were hitless in their last 12 at-bats against tonight’s starter, Andy Pettitte. (What about before that?) Not much nourishment in those stats. — RS

Is Pedro Feliz not reading what we’re writing? He just swung at a high pitch that would have been a ball (with Joe West’s strike zone) and fouled out to the catcher Jorge Posada, stranding Jayson Werth at second in the top of the second inning. What are they doing in that Phillies clubhouse between innings, reading scouting reports? Watching TV? Get online, boys. — DW

The Phillies are 1-1 in their last two Games 6s. In 1980 they beat the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series and bring on the Royal Philadelphia Mounted Police, and in 1993 Joe Carter hit the winning home run in the ninth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays their second consecutive championship. — DW

The plate umpire Joe West’s strike zone looks low and inside to lefties. A couple of pitches to left-handed hitters just above the belt and on the outside edge were called balls. Two pitches inside to Utley were strikes. A good, old-fashioned National League strike zone. — DW

That was an amazing first inning for Pedro Martinez: 13 pitches, no fastballs. He threw first-pitch changeups to Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira, and 10 in all. Might be a sign of no fastball command, or might be that Martinez is planning to incorporate that pitch a little later. With him, you never know. — BS

Pedro Martinez is taking his sweet time, but he got through the first inning in order. He’s looking extremely deliberate with every pitch. He still has that classic changeup, though, which he used to strike out Johnny Damon. — DW

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Andy Pettitte just showed how to pitch to Chase Utley without feeding him only breaking balls. He started Utley off with a slider that was high and outside, but came right back with a four-seamer that tailed over the plate for strike one. On a 1-1 count, Pettitte threw another four-seamer, jamming him, and Utley grounded into a double play. — BS

Josh Haner/The New York Times

No worries for Pettitte in the first inning. Shane Victorino reached on an infield single, but Chase Utley hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Pettitte pretty much went after Utley, at least with a runner on first. Here comes Pedro. — DW

We’re under way at Yankee Stadium as Jimmy Rollins just grounded out to shortstop. The atmosphere is electric, especially with Pedro Martinez pitching. As he walked into the dugout from the bullpen while Andy Pettitte was warming up, Alex Rodriguez jogged over and gave him a high five. — DW

Eric Gay/Associated Press

Preview

The most anticipated baseball game in New York over the last six years is less than an hour away, and the excitement at Yankee Stadium is building.

It’s Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, with all the accompanying drama of Philadelphia’s Pedro Martinez pitching in a potential championship-clinching game for the Yankees. Martinez’s opposition, Andy Pettitte, is the game’s most experienced postseason pitcher.

The Yankees lead the series, three games to two, and with a victory tonight they will win their 27th World Series title — and their first since 2000, when they beat the Mets in five games.

Martinez and the Phillies are hoping to extend the World Series to seven games for the first time since 2002, when the Angels, behind John Lackey, beat the Giants.

The last time a World Series stretched even six games was 2003, when Josh Beckett, pitching on three days’ rest, carried the Florida Marlins to a championship with a five-hit shutout of the Yankees at the old Stadium.

But this time, many people are favoring the Yankees to close it out. They are playing at home, they have designated hitter Hideki Matsui back in the lineup, they have the usually reliable Pettitte on the mound, and they have a well-rested Mariano Rivera ready to pitch at least two innings of relief.

Also, many people seem to assume that whatever trickery Martinez used to confuse hitters in Game 2 will not be so effective against the Yankees’ potent lineup the second time around. Could the next scheduled Yankees event be a parade?

“Any time you get a chance to close it out in front of your own fans, it’s special,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said this afternoon, “especially during the first year at the Stadium and what it would mean to the Steinbrenner family and the Yankee organization and all the people of New York.”

Maybe things are lining up in the Yankees’ favor, but in the history of the World Series, teams with a three-games-to-two lead are only 23-37 in Game 6. The Phillies’ Chase Utley has already tied Reggie Jackson’s record of five home runs in a World Series, but don’t expect him to see many good pitches. That’s because Ryan Howard, who matched Willie Wilson’s record of 12 Series strikeouts, is providing no protection in Philadelphia’s lineup.

Utley has great discipline at the plate, and will gladly take a walk ahead of Howard. That means the slumping Howard could be the one to see some decent pitches. Moreover, Pettitte is starting on three days’ rest for the first time in more than three years, and his command and his stamina could be issues.

It’s a compelling series of plots and subplots for Game 6 of the 105th World Series. — DW

The lineups for Game 6.

Phillies

1. Jimmy Rollins, SS

2. Shane Victorino, CF

3. Chase Utley, 2B

4. Ryan Howard, 1B

5. Jayson Werth, RF

6. Raul Ibanez, DH

7. Pedro Feliz, 3B

8. Ben Francisco, LF

9. Carlos Ruiz, C

Pedro Martinez, RHP

Yankees

1. Derek Jeter, SS

2. Johnny Damon, LF

3. Mark Teixeira, 1B

4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B

5. Hideki Matsui, DH

6. Jorge Posada, C

7. Robinson Cano, 2B

8. Nick Swisher, RF

9. Brett Gardner, CF

Andy Pettitte, LHP