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NEW YORK -- Listed at 6' 7" and 290 pounds, New York Yankees lefthander CC Sabathia dwarfs most everybody in baseball. But not former Cleveland Indians teammate Cliff Lee on a cool, drizzly Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

In Game 1 of the 105th World Series, Sabathia limited Philadelphia to two runs -- on solo homers by Chase Utley -- and just four hits over seven innings. But Lee, traded by Cleveland to Philadelphia in July, was even better. A lot better, really, as he blithely treated his first World Series game like a backyard game of catch.

Lee, hitting nearly every spot he intended to, kept the Yankees off balance with a darting curveball, cut fastball and changeup. He didn't walk a man and fanned 10 as he pitched the Phillies to a relatively easy 6-1 triumph. Lee, who allowed only an unearned run in the ninth, also was sharp defensively -- even snagging one bouncer behind his back.

"I don't know how I caught that ball," he said.

He also casually made what manager Charlie Manuel called a "Willie Mays" basket catch of a popup.

But Lee's best work in his 122-pitch night was in holding Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees' dangerous Nos. 3 and 4 hitters, to nothing for eight with five strikeouts. Three of the whiffs were by Rodriguez, the Yankees' best hitter in the AL playoffs.

Lee, in four playoff starts this year, has allowed only two earned runs in 33 1/3 innings. He now has won the first game played in the new Yankee Stadium, beating the Yankees 10-2 in an April game that Sabathia started, and now he's won the first World Series game played in the $1.5 billion palace. And last year he started the final All-Star Game played in the old Yankee Stadium.

Lee's complete game was the first pitched in a World Series since the last Series game in New York. Florida's A.J. Burnett wrapped up the 2003 event with a 2-0 win at old Yankee Stadium.

Lee "is pitching extremely well," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "But one thing is he can't pitch every day."

Manuel, who said he didn't know if Lee would come back on three days' rest, said, "When we got him, we knew he was good. But if you want to know the truth, I didn't know he was as good as he's been."

Lee said he was trying to stay one step ahead of the hitters.

"You've got to be unpredictable. You've got to show them stuff they haven't seen before," he said. "Mix speeds, mix locations and don't get in patterns. If they get a clue on what you're trying to do and you actually do it, they're going to make you pay."

Lee also said he hadn't been nervous at all.

"It's been a long time since I've been nervous playing this game," he said. "What's the point of being nervous? I've already done all the work.

"You've got to ... think you're going to get everybody out. I try not to go over the edge and rub things in and be cocky, but I definitely have confidence. There's no doubt about it."

Utley's two homers were all Philadelphia had until the eighth when three walks by Yankees relievers preceded Raul Ibanez's two-run single. The Phils tacked on two more runs in the ninth, featuring a run-scoring double by St. Louisan Ryan Howard.

It was the first time the Phillies, the defending World Series champions, had beaten the Yankees in a World Series game, having lost four straight in 1950.

Utley's first homer was a high fly to right, just getting into the seats, in the third inning. His second was a long blast to right center in the sixth. He became the first lefthanded batter to hit two homers off a lefthander in the same Series game since Babe Ruth helped wrap up a four-game sweep over the Cardinals in 1928 with two homers off Bill "Wee Willie" Sherdel in Game 4.

Sabathia hadn't allowed a homer to a lefthanded hitter at Yankee Stadium all season. Utley, who had 31 regular-season homers, had had just four singles in five games in the Phillies' National League Championship Series victory over Los Angeles. But on Wednesday, he did the same thing he did last year in Game 1 of the Series -- put the Phillies ahead to stay with a home run off a lefthander. In 2008, it was Tampa Bay's Scott Kazmir.

Besides being bamboozled by the 31-year-old Lee, the Yankees were victimized by an unusual double play in the fifth. Hideki Matsui singled then Robinson Cano hit a looper toward shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who appeared as if he wanted to trap the ball. Rollins then stepped on second and threw to first but second-base umpire Brian Gorman correctly had called Cano out on a catch by Rollins.

First-base umpire Jeff Nelson, not knowing what Gorman had called, ruled Cano safe when he said Rollins' throw pulled Howard from the bag. But Cano already had been called out by Gorman. Matsui, strolling toward the dugout while thinking he had been forced out, then really was out as when Howard -- on instructions from Rollins -- tagged Matsui.

All six umpires conferred briefly and the decision of a double play stood, with only a mild dispute from Girardi.

"I think ... Rollins put a deke on Matsui," Manuel said.

As the Phillies added their runs in the eighth and ninth, many of the 50,000-plus began heading for the subway.

"The fans were pretty rowdy early on in the game and ... near the end of the game, I noticed some people left," Utley said. "It got a little bit quieter."