NEW YORK - After Saturday night's rainout, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi could have gone with CC Sabathia in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series last night.

You couldn't have blamed Girardi if he had chosen to use his ace against the Los Angeles Angels.

Sabathia is one of the most dominant pitchers in the sport. The Yankees spent $161 million on him because they needed someone to pitch big games, the kind of games that deliver championships.

But Girardi wasn't about to fiddle with his rotation, not when he knew it was Andy Pettitte's turn to pitch.

Pettitte made his manager look smart. His 61/3 innings of one-run ball backboned the Yankees' 5-2 win, gave them their 40th AL pennant, and put them back in the World Series for the first time since 2003.

The Yankees, with their high-powered, home-run-hitting offense, will host the Phillies, with their high-powered, home-run-hitting offense, in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.

The Yanks led the AL in homers and runs. The Phils led the National League in homers and runs.

Two Thunder Road teams working on a dream. Buckle those chin straps. This should be fun.

It sure was fun last night for the Yankees, who rallied for three runs in the fourth inning, two coming on a single by Johnny Damon, then scored two more in the eighth to put it away.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment," Damon said amid a raucous champagne celebration in the clubhouse. "But we have one more mountain to climb. We still need to get four more wins. Philly is a tough team. We know they're a tough team, but, hopefully, we'll be victorious. It should be a great World Series."

The route to victory last night started with Pettitte, the captain of the clinch.

He established himself as a big-game pitcher in Game 5 of the 1996 World Series, and Girardi, the Yanks' catcher at the time, saw it all. Then 24, Pettitte outdueled Atlanta's John Smoltz as the Yankees won a 1-0 thriller to take a three-games-to-two lead in the Series.

After that game, Pettitte smiled and said: "I think it's destiny." He was right. The Yanks won it all in Game 6. They went on to win three more World Series in the next four seasons and Pettitte was part of all of those teams.

All these years later, Pettitte is 37. He has survived the wrath of George Steinbrenner, who ordered him traded in 1999, only to scotch a deal to the Phillies at the last minute. He has survived the dishonor that went with his being listed on the Mitchell Report, baseball's scorecard on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the game.

Two seasons after apologizing for his use of human growth hormone, Pettitte stood on top of the game again last night.

The win was Pettitte's 16th in postseason play, pushing him ahead of Smoltz for the most all time.

It was his fifth win in a clinching postseason game, also a record.

Pettitte left the game leading, 3-1, with one out in the seventh inning. Joba Chamberlain got the next two outs, before Girardi went to the best closer ever, Mariano Rivera, for the final six outs.

Rivera allowed a run in the eighth - This just in: The guy is human! - but got the job done in the ninth.

When it was over, the Yankees danced on the field. One year after failing to make the postseason for the first time in 13 seasons, they have opened the new Yankee Stadium with a trip to the World Series.

Ninety miles to the south, Phillies players surely watched on television as the Yankees partied last night.

The Phils have been idle since Wednesday, when they clinched their second straight NL title.

During their own celebration at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies didn't even try to hide their desire to play the Yankees in the World Series.

Everyone from club president David Montgomery to reliever Scott Eyre to pitcher Pedro Martinez said they wanted to play the Yankees, who led the majors with 103 wins this season.

Now the Phillies get the chance. It is a chance to measure themselves against the majors' best team in 2009, a chance, lest we forget, to join the ranks of the elite with a second straight World Series title.

Lefty Cliff Lee is primed to pitch Game 1 of the series against Sabathia, his former Cleveland teammate. Both won Cy Young Awards with the Indians and were traded away.

Lefty Cole Hamels, the king of October last year, will start one of the first three games for the Phils.

The Yanks won't be afraid of either pitcher. They were 36-18 against lefthanded starters this season and led the majors with a .286 batting average against lefties. This postseason, they have outscored opponents, 48-25.

This World Series will have a little bit of everything. Sluggers? They don't get much better than Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez. Star shortstops? Jimmy Rollins and Derek Jeter ain't bad. Big-time closers? Rivera is the best ever, and Brad Lidge had a season for the ages last year.

It's not the West (Dodgers) meets East (Yankees) World Series that Major League Baseball might have been rooting for.

But it's the one Phillies fans were rooting for. Yankees vs. Phillies.

All aboard the Amtrak train. This should be fun.

Contact staff writer Jim Salisbury at 215-854-4983 or jsalisbury@phillynews.com.