Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Now we know. All of Major League Baseball does.

A.J. Burnett is, indeed, a big-game pitcher. He’s got the goods, yes. And, more importantly, he’s got the gumption. That’s the part of a pitcher’s makeup that even the New York Yankees can’t know. Not for sure, anyway. It’s impossible to know, to believe, to trust, until a game, a series, a season, and maybe even a player’s reputation hinge on the outcome of a single start.

Like, say, last night in the Bronx, where the Yankees absolutely, positively needed a win against the Philadelphia Phillies. Burnett delivered it, final score 3-1, on the game’s grandest stage. The World Series. Yankee Stadium. Bright lights. Big city.

The Yankees have long had a hunch about Burnett, of course, which is why they gave him $82.5 million over five years. They thought they knew. In sports, however, you never know until you know.

Burnett was seen as a complement in an offseason talent haul that included ace CC Sabathia, who lost Game 1 of the World Series, and Mark Teixeira, whose fourth-inning home run off of Pedro Martinez tied last night’s game at one run apiece.

Hideki Matsui homered in the sixth, giving the Yankees a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The series switches to Philadelphia for the next three games. There’s still drama, thanks to Burnett.

Big Stage Talk

Before the game I went back and watched Burnett’s introductory press conference from back in December. Saying it is one thing. Doing it is another.

Burnett, who had pitched in Florida and Toronto, did a lot of talking about coveting the big stage, about having grown up and learned what it takes to become a champion.

You know what they say about talk.

Including this season, Burnett had made 244 starts without appearing in the postseason, where the pressure can make a player do funny things.

You just don’t know.

What the Yankees did know, however, was that Burnett possessed a killer curveball, which he used repeatedly last night. Threw it for strikes, keeping the hitters off-balance. The Yankees knew about his fastball, too. They could only hope, however, that the tools of the trade would be accompanied by the requisite October fortitude.

You just don’t know.

‘Off the Chart’

“He was great,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, echoing the sentiments of his Philadelphia counterpart, Charlie Manuel, who used the phrase “off-the-chart” to describe Burnett’s slider.

Any pitching coach worth his rosin bag would tell you the most important pitch in baseball is strike one. Getting ahead of the hitter makes things so much easier on the pitcher.

Well, Burnett threw first-pitch strikes to the first 11 batters he faced. That’s how a pitcher wins in October.

“My key was strike one,” Burnett said.

Again and again he was the one in command. Burnett was the aggressor. The hitters were tentative. Burnett, in the end, allowed one run on four hits over seven innings. He struck out nine and walked two.

You have to remember that Burnett surrendered four first- inning runs in his last start, against the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series. Not good enough. He wanted to make amends. He did.

“Biggest game I’ve ever thrown,” he said. “I knew I had a task ahead of me with Pedro on the mound.”

Proven Pitcher

Unlike Burnett, Martinez entered the game a proven postseason performer. The World Series is nothing new to him. He’s seen enough to know when a player grows up before our eyes.

“You have to give Burnett a lot of credit for the kind of game he was able to pitch,” Martinez said.

Burnett, whose syntax doesn’t compare with his slider, said last night’s game was the funnest of his career. And why not?

The Yankees were in dire straits. They needed something special from Burnett, who spoke of watching the post-Game 1 interview given by Philadelphia’s Cliff Lee. The left-hander spoke incessantly about his self-confidence. Didn’t matter that he was about to pitch the World Series opener. It was, to him, just another game, something he’d done countless times before. No sweat.

Something clicked in Burnett, who was flanked by his sons, Ashton and A.J., at the post-game press conference.

“I went out tonight with confidence, and just, you know, the game just rolled by,” he said. Just like that.

The Yankees always thought Burnett was capable of this type of outing this time of year. Burnett, however, didn’t seem sure until last night, until he’d experienced the funnest game of his career.

Now he knows.

We all do.

(Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

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To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 30, 2009 01:37 EDT