NEW YORK -- So everybody goes south happy. The Florida Marlins skip home after almost literally stealing Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night. The New York Yankees follow, merrily, after getting back on track with a 6-1 win in Game 2 on Sunday.

And so, after two games in a frigid Yankee Stadium, it's off to South Florida for Games 3, 4 and 5.

That's where the real Series begins.

After two games, this World Series has a definite Sybil look to it. As bad as the Yankees looked Saturday, they looked equally good Sunday. As speedy and aggressive as the Marlins looked in Game 1, they looked equally lost and overmatched in Game 2.

CLOSER LOOK Joe Torre tinkers once in a while. He'll be the first to admit it. If his offense isn't clicking, he'll take a pencil and an eraser to his lineup card and go wild. More often than not, he gets results. SPOTLIGHT HERO: Andy Pettitte On three days' rest, Pettitte took a four-hitter into the ninth inning. The great equalizer, he has won three consecutive Game 2 starts to get the Yankees even at 1-1. GOAT: Mark Redman The Marlins' lefty consistently fell behind and committed a cardinal sin by grooving a 3-0 pitch that Hideki Matsui belted for a three-run homer in the first inning. GO FIGURE 13 -- Hits for the Marlins so far in the Series, all singles. That's smallball. 14 -- Postseason starts (out of 29) in which Pettitte has allowed two runs or less. In nine World Series starts, he has not allowed an ER four times. 41 -- Years since a Yankees starter pitch a shutout in the World Series: Ralph Terry, 1962, Game 7.

Sure, you can chalk it up to pitching. Brad Penny was good for the Marlins in the opener, holding the Yanks to seven hits. Andy Pettitte was superb Sunday, scattering six hits and giving up only an unearned run in 8 2/3 innings. It was the third time in three postseason Game 2 starts this year (the division series, American League Championship Series and now the World Series) that Pettitte has come in with his team facing an 0-2 hole and won.

This guy could stop a New York City cab during rush hour in the rain. On a dime.

"All it's been doing this postseason is adding a little more gray hair to my head," Pettitte said.

Yeah, you could say that the Yankees' pitching has come around, or that the team's bats did Sunday, or you could simply say that the Marlins had an off night. Which, certainly, is possible, too.

But the fact is, it's too hard to tell any of it because this Series hasn't started yet. Not really. In the first two games in New York, both teams were still coming off the highs, and the lows, of their respectively remarkable wins in the league championships. Both teams were physically tired. Both teams were mentally exhausted.

In Florida, after a day of rest Monday, we'll see the best both teams have to offer.

World Series are like that. Sometimes they take a little while to get going. Sometimes, it takes awhile to get a feel for them. For everybody. The Yankees, for instance, had no idea what to do with Juan Pierre on Saturday night. On Sunday, they held him to one bunt hit.

On Sunday, the Yankees battered around Marlins starter Mark Redman for five hits and four runs in 2 1/3 innings. But in Game 1, they could barely touch Penny, and in Game 3, the Yankees will run up against 23-year-old Josh Beckett, the Marlins' best pitcher and a guy who two-hit the Chicago Cubs in his last start.

By Game 3, the teams will start to adjust. They'll understand each other a lot better. Pitchers will get a better idea of what to throw and when to throw it. Hitters will have a better idea of pitchers, too. They're already starting to adjust.

Alfonso Soriano, the leadoff man for the Yankees, looked awful Saturday. He looked pretty bad at times Sunday, too, until he launched a two-run homer in the fourth inning.

"That's the thing with the postseason. Who cares if you struggle before that?" asked Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. "You just have to keep that in mind."

Neither team, not after a day off, will have the momentum. If you believe in momentum anyway. And home-field advantage? Playing in front of more than 60,000 fans in Pro Player Stadium might be a little boost to the Marlins. But the Yankees were one of the better road teams in baseball this past season.

"If it goes seven games, it's seven separate seasons," Yankees manager Joe Torre said before Game 2. "Each game lives on its own merit."

These are separate chapters in a book that these two teams are writing. The first two chapters haven't been that great. And the ending ... well, we can't say just yet.

But the meat of the book? The good part?

That's coming. Starting Tuesday.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.