ALCS: Yankees 5, Angels 2

Yankees return to World Series after 6-year wait

New York Times news service

New York -- When they were new stars at an old park, the baseball season rarely ended until they were done playing. Now the Yankees' core is older, the park is new and the World Series is no longer a birthright. But the stage is theirs again.

After a six-year wait, Derek Jeter and the Yankees are back in the World Series, vanquishing the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, 5-2, to win the American League Championship Series, four games to two.

It is the 40th pennant for the Yankees, who will host the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the World Series in the Bronx on Wednesday. Mariano Rivera was on the mound when the Yankees clinched, striking out Gary Matthews Jr. for the final out.

For Jeter, Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte, who won Game 6, this is their seventh World Series team in New York and first since 2003. It is the first for Alex Rodriguez, the sixth-year Yankee, who hit .429 with three home runs in the series.

Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira embraced Jeter at shortstop after the final out, while Rivera and Posada hugged near the mound. In the clubhouse celebration, Jeter found Hal Steinbrenner, the managing general partner, and dumped Champagne on his head.

"He used to do that to my dad all the time," said Steinbrenner, adding that his father, George, would attend Game 1 on Wednesday.

"What I like about our team is they really care about each other," Hal Steinbrenner said. "They are a family. They have all the ability, we know that. But they support each other, they pick each other up, and they never quit."

Rodriguez reached base five times in Game 6, and his sublime postseason has shattered the notion that he wilts under pressure. He forged that reputation by fizzling as the Yankees dropped first-round series in 2005, 2006 and 2007. But poor pitching was also at fault.

The Yankees' pitchers had a 2.91 earned run average in this series, stifling the Angels' aggressive attack. No pitcher was better than the new ace, C.C. Sabathia, who won twice and was named the ALCS most valuable player. Sabathia will oppose the Phillies' Cliff Lee in the World Series opener, a rematch of the Yankee Stadium opener on April 16, when Lee pitched for Cleveland.

Sabathia said he had sent Lee a congratulatory text message after the Phillies won the National League pennant last week. Sabathia's 5-year-old son, C.C. III, was by his side in the clubhouse.

"He always keeps asking me, 'Are we going to the World Series?' " Sabathia said. "And I can finally say, 'Yeah."'

The Angels scored a run in the third, when Bobby Abreu drove in Jeff Mathis, who had doubled for the fifth time in the series. They got nothing else off Pettitte, who earned his 16th postseason victory, breaking the record he shared with John Smoltz.

Pettitte has been to the World Series more recently than Jeter, Rivera and Posada, starting once for Houston in 2005. Pettitte has considered retirement since then, but keeps returning, hoping for one more chance at a title.

This is probably his best opportunity. The Yankees splurged for Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Teixeira last winter, adding three elite players in their prime.

"It's nice when things work out the way you think they're going to work out," Pettitte said. "But I felt like if me and C.C. and A.J. could stay healthy, we could get back to the postseason. In the playoffs, you don't really know what you're going to do, but C.C. has been so unbelievable leading this rotation."

The Yankees were just 10 for 56 (.179) with runners in scoring position over the first five games, and the struggle continued in the early innings of Game 6. They left two runners on in the first, and then loaded the bases with two outs in the second.

Johnny Damon grounded out then, but he soon got another chance. Joe Saunders started the fourth inning by walking Robinson Cano and facing Nick Swisher, who at that point was batting .100 (3 for 30) in the playoffs.

Swisher singled through the left side. The runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt, and after Jeter's second walk, Damon lashed a fastball into left field.

Damon had the first hit at Yankee Stadium, in April, and this was perhaps his most important. The Yankees took a 2-1 lead, and a grateful Jeter pointed at Damon from second base.

Saunders lasted two more batters. Teixeira reached on an infield single when Damon beat a force play at second. Rodriguez came up next, and Saunders fell behind. He had been wild all night, and did not get a close call on 3-1. Rodriguez walked to force in a run, and Darren Oliver replaced Saunders.

Pettitte helped it translate to a pennant, allowing one run and seven hits in six and a third innings. With two outs and one on in the sixth, he gave up a bloop double to right by Guerrero, who hit .370 in the series and flicked a ball just inches off the dirt. With Joba Chamberlain warming in the bullpen, Pettitte fell behind Kendry Morales, 3-0, before a called strike and a comebacker for the final out.

Chamberlain entered with one out and one on in the seventh, getting two ground balls, including one that bounced far enough off Jeter's chest for the second baseman, Cano, to grab it for a force out.

Maybe that was what Jeter had in mind when he promised that the ghosts would follow the Yankees from the old stadium to the new one. There is much more at play than the supernatural, of course -- a hefty payroll, a healthy and productive roster, young players who augment the stars.

Yet the Yankees have won all five of their home games in the 2009 playoffs, an encouraging trend for the team with home-field advantage in the World Series. If the Yankees stay perfect in the Bronx, they will capture their 27th championship.