ALL SPORTS

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies made a confident start to the postseason with Cliff Lee throwing a six-hitter in a 5-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies in Wednesday's opener of their NL Division series.
It took until the fifth inning for Philadelphia to get on the scoreboard at a windswept Citizens Bank Park when Raul Ibanez doubled to right field to score Jayson Werth.

Carlos Ruiz then lined a single off Colorado starter Ubaldo Jimenez that scored Ibanez for a 2-0 lead.

The Phillies broke the game open in the sixth with three more runs as the Rockies outfielders were tested by some swirling fly balls.

Ryan Howard doubled home Chase Utley, and Werth followed with a deep drive to left that caromed off the wall for a run-scoring triple. A single from Ibanez plated Werth to make it 5-0 -- a daunting lead considering how Lee was pitching.

Colorado finally scored in the ninth, but Lee took the applause with a complete game victory in his first career playoff start.

The left-hander struck out five, issued no walks and retired 16 successive batters at one point as Philadelphia drew first blood in the best-of-five series.

"I tried to treat it like a regular game, obviously more excitement but everything is the same. This is the start you want though," said Lee who had ended the regular season in mixed form.

Rockies manager Jim Tracy said his hitters had failed to take advantage of some looser pitching from Lee in the early stages.

"He got good as the game went on, beyond the third innings we didn't get many good swings at him. We had some opportunities early on though and there were some vulnerability in his start," he said.

"You tip your cap to him - it's a five game series and we have been in this position before. Tomorrow (Thursday) is a pretty important game - we don't want to go back to Denver two down in the series," said Tracy.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was well satisfied with his team's display.

"I felt we did a good job, we created chances and took advantage of all of them. We hit the ball very good and Cliff pitched a hell of a game.