Major League Baseball

AT CLIFF'S EDGE, YANKS NEED ANDY - BOMBERS CONFIDENT IN PETTITTE

Published Oct. 18, 2010 10:12 p.m. ET

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Sixty-one times Cliff Lee has been beaten. So, the talented lefty bleeds when stabbed.

Nine of those 61 regularseason losses came this year, when he won a dozen games. That's two more than Javier Vazquez and A.J. Burnett. That's not exactly Pedro Martinez or Curt Schilling.

And The Post has learned that when Lee woke up this morning in a Manhattan hotel, his breath was bad and he didn't don a Superman cape and fly to The Bronx for tonight's ALCS Game 3 against Andy Pettitte and the Yankees.

"I'll put Andy Pettitte up against anyone in the playoffs," Mark Teixeira said. "Andy's used to pressure. He's been in so many big games throughout career." Lee might be 6-0 with a 1.44 ERA in the postseason - 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA this October - but nobody is unbeatable.

Still . . .

How much respect has Lee gotten going into tonight's action at Yankee Stadium, a venue he is expected to call home next year after signing a mega-money deal as a free agent?

Las Vegas has installed Lee and the Rangers as a slight favorite in a game started by the winningest pitcher, Pettitte, in postseason history at the Stadium.

So, can Lee who beat the Yankees twice in last year's World Series as a Phillie, live up to the expectations and pitch the Rangers to a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven affair that is tied, 1-1?

"I expect as much from myself than anyone expects of me," Lee said at the Stadium where the Yankees and Rangers worked out yesterday.

From the moment Lee beat the Rays in Game 5 of the ALDS with a completegame gem last Tuesday in St. Petersburg, he has loomed over this ALCS while C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis pitched better than CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes who put the Yankees in early holes that Pettitte must avoid tonight.

Under normal circumstances, the road team getting a split in the first two games like the Yankees did in Texas gives them homefield advantage, since three of the possible five remaining tilts are in their park.

Yet, Lee's postseason history can't be ignored. Even if one of his two outings against the Yankees this summer wasn't good.

Nor can Pettitte be overlooked. He is 38 and possibly in the final lap of a borderline Hall of Fame career, but you never count him out in the seventh month of any baseball season.

"I really think he could care less who he is pitching against," Lance Berkman said of Pettitte, whose 19 postseason wins are tops all-time. "There is a lot that has been made of Cliff Lee, and rightly so because he has been so dominant in the postseason, but he is a human being. He's not a robot. He is susceptible to a rough start like everyone else. I feel like we have the right guy on the mound, and we will see what happens."

The Yankees' approach to grinding out at-bats and raising pitch totals goes to sleep against Lee, whose control is so good he could hit a gnat in the butt.

"If he is throwing strikes, we can't be taking up there and waiting for our perfect pitch because it may not come," said Mark Teixeira, a career .333 (10-for-30) hitter against Lee, but 0-for-8 in the ALCS. "If we have to be a little more aggressive, we might."

Pettitte against Lee smothers the Yankees' clubhouse in confidence.

"(Lee) has to beat the best ever to pitch in the postseason," Joba Chamberlain said. "Cliff Lee is good, but this guy next to us is the best."

Lefties all right

Game 3 starters Andy Pettitte and Cliff Lee both have impressive postseason resumes. Here?s how they have fared in the postseason.

Pettitte Lee

41 Games 7

19-9 Record 6-0

256 Innings 56.1

266 Hits 38

100 ER 9

72 Walks 6

168 Strikeouts 54

3.87 ERA 1.44

1.32 WHIP 0.

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