Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee dominated the Colorado Rockies as the Philadelphia Phillies began their World Series title defense with a 5-1 victory in their National League 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 Colorado's 15-game-winning pitche Ubaldo Jimenez. Lee, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner who joined the Phillies from Cleveland mid-season, struck out five and had no walks in his first career playoff start. He retired 16 straight batters at one point and only lost his bid for a 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 left with no outs in the sixth after allowing five runs. Dodgers 5, Cardinals 3: In Los Angeles, the home team beat St. Louis in an NL playoff opener full of missed chances for both teams. The teams set a division series record by stranding a combined 30 runners. The Dodgers left 16, including 12 in scoring position. Pitching in the playoffs for the first time in his 11-year career, Dodgers starter Randy Wolf lasted 3 2-3 innings. Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer off Carpenter in the first inning, giving the NL West champions the lead for good. Offense was at a premium for both teams' star sluggers. Game 2 is Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Yankees 7, Twins 2: In New York, Derek Jeter homered as New York romped over Minnesota in the opener of their American League series. After Jeter's third-inning homer off made it 2-2, Nick Swisher hit a go-ahead double in the fourth. Even Alex Rodriguez broke out of his playoff rut against the tired Twins, who got into the playoffs with an epic one-game division tiebreaker against Detroit and only arrived at their New York hotel at 4 A.M. Rodriguez had gone 0 for 29 in the postseason with runners on base dating to Game 4 of the 2004 AL championship series before an RBI single that made it 4
