Just when you thought the Yankee bullpen was going to ruin the night again, the offense mounted a thrilling, 2-out rally against Phillies closer Brad Lidge. Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada will get a lot of credit for clutch two-out ribbie hits, but the real star of the night was Johnny Damon, who wore Lidge out fouling off pitch after pitch before his base hit. Then he promptly stole second and third with heads-up base running against the Mark Teixeira shift. The Yanks would not have been in a position to win that game without that at-bat so Damon deserves a lot of the credit for tonight's victory.
It was nice to see Posada and teammates rally around Joba Chamberlain after they put three runs on the board to get him off the hook. But the Yankee bullpen is seriously testing Joe Girardi's faith in them. Joba looked like he was on the verge of being the old dominating set-up guy, but he gave up a long home run to tie the game. You have to wonder what Girardi will do tomorrow. Mariano Rivera has thrown less than 20 pitches in Games 3 and 4. As much as he might not want to, Girardi may have to use Mo for 2 innings if he has an opportunity to close out the World Series.
Tonight's win was crushing, you could see it on the faces of the Phillies at the end of the game. To battle CC Sabathia all night and then finally come back to tie the game, only to have their closer give it up has to be devastating. It's difficult to see the Phillies coming back from this, even if they get another fantastic performance from Cliff Lee.
Thanks to Googie man via Wikipedia for the photo.
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