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Cliff Lee was brilliant in Game 1, and Dave Cameron gets at just why:

He had everything working last night, including a nasty curveball that Fox never tired of talking about. But for me, it was Lee’s change-up that was his true out pitch last night, and the reason he was able to shut down a line-up with some really good right-handed hitters. He threw 21 of them on the evening, 18 of which went for strikes, including five swinging strikes where the opposing hitter was just badly fooled.

--snip--

The final total: three balls, five swinging strikes, six called strikes, two foul, five in play outs. Lee’s change-up was almost perfect. He used it against the power hitting Yankee right-handers, but also mixed it in to lefties effectively as well.

The “spike” curveball might have been the more interesting story for Fox to focus on, but the change-up was what led Lee to pitch one of the best games in World Series history.

Lee's performance was startling, because of its raw numbers, and the quality of the competition, and perhaps most especially because of his utter insouciance throughout the proceedings.

That said, it seemed to me this season that Lee, despite having won a Cy Young award just a year ago, wasn't getting the credit he deserved. These things are true, though:

• Lee is one of only 24 pitchers to throw at least 400 innings over these last two seasons.
• Among those 24 pitchers, Lee has the fourth-best adjusted ERA, behind only Tim Lincecum, Zack Greinke, and Roy Halladay.
• He's got the third-best strikeout-to-walk ratio, behind only Halladay and Dan Haren.

I'm surprised to find that Lee ranks ahead of CC Sabathia in both categories, but he does. Oh, and none of these numbers include Lee's brilliant postseason run. Even leaving that aside, wouldn't he rank among your top five choices, if you needed one pitcher to win one game for you, next week?

Lee has never really caught the public's imagination as a superstar. But if he beats the Yankees again next week, he will.