PHILADELPHIA -- Cliff Lee pitched like an ace instead of a postseason rookie.
Lee dominated the Colorado Rockies, tossing a six-hitter, and the Philadelphia Phillies began their World Series title defense with a 5-1 victory in their NL playoff opener Wednesday.
Raul Ibanez had two hits and two RBIs, and Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth drove in runs with key extra-base hits off 15-game winner Ubaldo Jimenez.
On a day when swirling winds made flyballs an adventure, Lee, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, struck out five and had no walks in his first career playoff start. He retired 16 straight batters at one point until Garrett Atkins hit a wind-blown double in the seventh. Lee lost his shutout when Troy Tulowitzki doubled in a run with two outs in the ninth.
The hard-throwing Jimenez was equally impressive against the league's No. 1-scoring offense for four innings, but ran out of gas in the fifth. He got chased with no outs in the sixth after allowing nine hits and five runs in five-plus innings.
Yankees 7, Twins 2
NEW YORK -- Derek Jeter homered, CC Sabathia was the ace the Yankees signed him to be, and New York romped over the Minnesota Twins in the opener of their AL playoff series.
Even Alex Rodriguez broke out of his playoff rut against these tired Twins.
After Jeter's third-inning homer off losing pitcher Brian Duensing made it 2-all, Nick Swisher hit a go-ahead double in the fourth.
Rodriguez had gone 0 for 29 in the postseason with runners on base dating to Game 4 of the 2004 AL championship series before chasing Duensing with an RBI single that made it 4-2 in the fifth. Rodriguez hit an RBI single off the right-field wall in the seventh.
After beating Detroit in the AL Central tiebreaker at the Metrodome on Tuesday night, Minnesota didn't arrive at its hotel until nearly 4 a.m. The Yankees were 7-0 against the Twins during the regular season.
Sabathia, who had lost his last three playoff decisions for Cleveland and Milwaukee, allowed one earned run in 6 2-3 innings and struck out eight.