Arlington, Texas - Cliff Lee gets to pitch in an even bigger game for the American League champion Texas Rangers with the New York Yankees out of the way.

The ace left-hander didn't have to beat the defending champions again to put Texas in its first World Series, so the Rangers' prized midseason acquisition is set to start Game 1 on the biggest stage Wednesday night.

Lee is no stranger to the World Series. He won Games 1 and 5 for Philadelphia over New York last fall before the Phillies traded him to Seattle the same day they acquired Roy Halladay.

But the Rangers are newcomers, making the Fall Classic in the franchise's 50th season despite plenty of unexpected pitching changes along the way.

"We all started having a certain feeling at some point in time. They just kept fighting back and fighting back, and we started believing in them," said Rangers icon Nolan Ryan, the team president and part-owner. "They were determined to get it done."

While Lee was pitching for another AL West team at the start of the season, Scott Feldman and Rich Harden, the big addition last winter, topped the Texas rotation. Frank Francisco was expected to be the closer.

While none of that trio is pitching this fall, the team that used to never have enough pitching is going to the World Series.

The Rangers clinched their first AL pennant with a 6-1 victory over the Yankees in Game 6 of the AL championship series Friday night before a frenzied crowd of 51,404 at Rangers Ballpark - in the shadow of Cowboys Stadium, where the attention is usually focused in the fall.

Colby Lewis dominated over eight innings, winning for the second time in the series, before Neftali Feliz closed it out.

The Rangers dismissed the 27-time champion Bronx Bombers much the same way New York had knocked them out of the playoffs their previous three appearances in the second half of the 1990s.

There was little drama. Texas outscoring the Yankees 38-19, and all four wins were by at least five runs.