Girardi: Lee had a brilliant performance

Joe Girardi and hitting coach Kevin Long looked at the video of Cliff Lee's Game 3 masterpiece and came to the same conclusion they had immediately afterward. There wasn't much the Yankees could have done.

"K-Long and I were talking about it; the guy didn't make any mistakes," Girardi said Tuesday. "If you don't make any mistakes, it's hard for anyone to get hits."

The Yankees had just two against Lee, who struck out 13 in eight innings and upped his career postseason record to 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in eight starts. They were 0-for-19 against Lee with two strikes in the count.

"Talking to K-Long, watching the film a little bit, [Lee] might have had four or five pitches in the middle of the plate and that was it the whole night," Girardi said. "He lived on the edges. It was a brilliant performance."

The best Girardi said he's observed. "I didn't see Doc Halladay's no-hitter and didn't see Don Larsen's [perfect game]," Girardi said. "But that's as good as I've seen."

Recruiting trail

CC Sabathia, who starts Wednesday, said all of the starters could take a lesson from Andy Pettitte. Pettitte lost to Lee in Game 3 but has a 2.57 ERA in two starts. "We know that everybody needs to step up and kind of match what Andy has been doing this postseason," Sabathia said.

He also said he plans this offseason to do what he did last offseason - recruit like heck to get Pettitte to return next year. "I'll be calling him and begging him this offseason to come back," Sabathia said. Extra bases

Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher entered Game 4 a combined 3-for-34 in the series . . . This marked the 30th time in 41 ALCS that a team held a 2-1 series lead. Of the previous 29, the team leading 2-1 went on to win 22 times. This is the third time the Yanks trailed 2-1, winning in 1977 vs. Kansas City (in five games) and in '98 vs. Cleveland (in six).