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A statement was called for, but all A.J. Burnett could author was a punchline and now he has become the gift that keeps on giving for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Do not think that Andy Pettitte’s reputation as a big-game hunter and the last-gasp nature of Pedro Martinez’s return to the majors has infused the New York Yankees with an inordinate amount of confidence going into tonight’s Game 6 of the World Series. That would be wrong. The synchronicity of Pettitte pitching another deciding game and possibly giving a new Yankee Stadium its first title.

Too bad about that three day’s rest thing, though.

Pettitte is 5-2 in 11 starts in playoff series-clinching games, but tonight he will try to do something he hasn’t done since 2003, when after five mediocre innings in a Game 6 loss to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, he came back on three day’s rest and gave up an unearned run in 82/3 innings in a 6-1 win over the Florida Marlins in Game 1 of the World Series.

Pettitte is a nicer version of Roger Clemens. His sincerity has given him so much currency that his admission of human growth hormone use seldom arises any more – but like his fellow Texan, he also has a habit of talking in circles. Listen long enough and he will eventually tell you the truth.

By the end of his news conference during yesterday’s off-day, there was a hint of doubt that contrasted dramatically with what the Phillies’ Game 5 starter Cliff Lee said when asked about pitching out of the bullpen if necessary: a laconic, yeah why not?

“I know how mentally focused I have to get for these games just because I know the place that I’ve got to get to, as far as mentally, to have that kind of command,” the 36-year-old Pettitte said. “Physically for me, it obviously is a little concern, just seeing how my body is going to feel on that short rest, because I’m not just sure at my age.”

Pitching every five days has become a logistical and psychologically standard at a time when a premium is placed on young pitching. Pitchers can subtly refine their routine to accommodate short rest – CC Sabathia, for example, prefers throwing on flat ground as opposed to a bullpen session – but the one thing they can’t duplicate is the day between starts, where in Sabathia’s words they normally “just forget about stuff.”

When Burnett couldn’t make it out of the third inning in Game 5, he opened a Posada’s Box of pitching horror for the Yankees.

Manager Joe Girardi’s strategy of using three starters, plus closer Mariano Rivera, to win the Series and limit the exposure of his middle relievers was dependent on Burnett responding to pitching on three day’s rest the way he has in the past.

Nobody expects a pitcher to have no-hit stuff on three days but, c’mon. Burnett said he let the whole city and his team down, but he did much more.

And now Phillies manager Charlie Manuel looks a genius for milking innings out of Joe Blanton in Game 4. He has Pedro Martinez pitching tonight. And while Cole Hamels has been brutal, his woes generally don’t manifest themselves until the second or third time through the lineup. If this thing goes to Game 7, Manuel can start Hamels and bring in Lee out of the bullpen.

“Cole Hamels can pitch for me any time,” Manuel said, ending any suggestion he’d lost confidence in last year’s World Series most valuable player. Blanton will be available for Game 7 or maybe even give Manuel some innings tonight if Martinez implodes. Yes, the Yankees’ Sabathia is putting in a Jack Morris kind of postseason and is lined up for Game 7 but his command was off in Game 4. Girardi is ready to use Burnett out of the bullpen to win one of these next two games. But honestly? At this stage it seems as if Manuel has more options than Girardi – doubly so if Martinez has six innings in him on what is expected to be a cool, clear night in the Bronx .

Martinez lauded both the Phillies and his long-time foes the Yankees for “resiliency” and “stubbornness.”

“If I sit at home and I’m watching a baseball game, that’s the kind of attitude I want to see,” Martinez said. “And it wasn’t just our team. Their team did the same thing. That team never went away . . . and those are the kinds of games that you pay to watch.”

Martinez has spoken for many: The pitching’s fraying around the edges, but it really does seem like there’s a lot of baseball left in these teams. November baseball doesn’t seem so bad after all.

Martinez looks toward Hall of Fame

Pedro Martinez's Hall of Fame induction speech will be an all-timer.

Asked yesterday if he had moved into the pantheon of one-name stars – think The Babe and Mickey – Martinez said: “I'm pretty sure me name will be mentioned. I don't know in which way. Normally when you die, people tend to give you props about the good things. But that's after you die. So I'm hoping to get it before I die. I don't want to die and then hear everybody say, 'Oh, there goes one of the best players ever.' If you're going to give me props, give them to me right now.”

Martinez was in a reflective mood, saying his time with the Montreal Expos was “where I really became a baseball player, actually, because before that I was just a kid with a good arm that didn't know what he was doing. One hundred and fifty four [pounds] wet with a good arm.”

Martinez laughed when he was asked if it surprised him to learn Boston Red Sox fans are openly rooting for the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series against the New York Yankees.

“It wouldn't surprise me at all, I know they don't like the Yankees to win, not even in Nintendo games,” said Martinez, the Phillies' starter tonight. 'And knowing that I am part of Boston, I consider myself a Bostonian as well, too. I've been a Montrealer, a Bostonian, a New Yorker and somehow I might become a Philadelphian, now.”