NEW YORK — CC Sabathia sounded a bit glum. His World Series debut didn't turn out the way he wanted.

The Big Man was outpitched by former Cleveland teammate Cliff Lee, just like on opening day at the new Yankee Stadium. After carrying New York into the championship on his broad back, Sabathia struggled somewhat as the Yankees lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1, in last night's opener.

"I wish I could stand here and say it was just two pitches, but I was behind pretty much the whole game," Sabathia said.

Chase Utley homered twice on badly located 95 mph fastballs that drifted over the heart of the plate. He drove a 3-2 pitch that was supposed to be down and away into the right-field seats in the third inning. Then, when Sabathia shook off catcher Jorge Posada's call for a cutter and tried to go up and in with an 0-2 offering in the sixth, Utley sent it deep into the right-field bleachers.

"He got some balls in the middle of the plate to Utley, and Utley made him pay," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "We all know Utley is a great player. He's got power."

Sabathia had not allowed a home run to a left-handed hitter at Yankee Stadium in 104 at-bats this year before Utley connected on the ninth pitch of his at-bat in the third, according to STATS.

When he did it again in the sixth, Utley became only the third left-handed hitter to homer off Sabathia twice in a game, following Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki on July 30, 2005, and Jim Thome of the Chicago White Sox on March 31, 2008.

Other than that, the Phillies were 2 for 23 against Sabathia.

"We wasted a great pitching performance from CC," Johnny Damon said.

Cheap seats: Want to go to a World Series game? Try the Big Apple.

The average ticket price for the first two games at Yankee Stadium was $600 yesterday afternoon, compared with $1,400 for Games 3-5 in Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park.

The cheapest tickets were going for about $310 in New York and $475 in Philadelphia.