NewsBehind Utley, Phils force way back to NY
Slugger matches Reggie for World Series homer recordBy John Schlegel / MLB.com
11/02/09 11:32 PM EST
With a record-setting performance, slugging second baseman Chase Utley gave ace Cliff Lee a six-run lead to work with heading into the eighth inning of a must-win Game 5 of the World Series for the Phillies.
It almost wasn't enough.
The Yankees brought the tying run to the plate twice in the ninth, but the Phillies managed to hang on for an 8-6 victory to force a Game 6 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. The Yankees lead the series, 3-2.
After Utley helped push the lead to six runs heading into the eighth with his record-tying fifth homer of the World Series, neither Lee nor that comfortable cushion lasted much longer. The Yankees pulled to within three entering the ninth inning, and then it really got interesting.
The ninth began with Ryan Madson taking the ball instead of Brad Lidge, who gave up three runs in the Game 4 loss. Madson proceeded to allow a leadoff double to Jorge Posada and a single to shallow left to Hideki Matsui to bring Derek Jeter to the plate, representing the tying run.
Madson got Jeter to hit into a 6-4-3 double play, but after Johnny Damon singled to bring Mark Teixeira to the plate as the potential tying run, Madson dealt the strikeout for the save.
Lee exited the game after a two-run double by Alex Rodriguez off the glove of a diving Raul Ibanez in left field, and Rodriguez later scored to cut the Phillies' lead to 8-5 with no outs in the top of the eighth. After Lee drew a standing ovation from the Citizens Bank Park crowd after a 112-pitch performance, Chan Ho Park entered in relief.
Just moments before, Utley tied the record for home runs in a World Series as the Phillies took their largest lead of the night.
Utley hit a three-run homer in the first inning off Yankees starter A.J. Burnett and pushed the Phillies' lead higher in the seventh with a solo shot off lefty reliever Phil Coke, who then gave up a homer to Ibanez to stretch the lead to six runs in the must-win game for the Phillies.
Utley tied Reggie Jackson's mark of five homers in one World Series, set with the Yankees in 1977, and now has seven career World Series homers, a record for second basemen. Utley's leadoff walk and ensuing run in the third started off the three-run rally that ended Burnett's night.
Lee pitched strong through the first seven innings, allowing four hits while walking three. He wound up allowing five earned runs on the night, three in the eighth when Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira scored on Rodriguez's double, and then when Rodriguez scored on a sacrifice fly.
The Yankees got into their bullpen much earlier. After Burnett's departure without an out recorded in the third, right-handed reliever David Robertson recording the next six outs, followed by two shutout innings by Alfredo Aceves before Coke entered.
Lee allowed a first-inning run but settled into a groove, retiring 11 of 12, before the Yankees scratched out a run in the fifth, with Eric Hinske scoring after drawing a walk. He allowed a one-out Johnny Damon single and an Alex Rodriguez RBI double, as the Yankees jumped on top.
But the Phillies bounced right back in the bottom of the first. Jimmy Rollins singled, and Shane Victorino was struck by a pitch in the right hand while turning to bunt - television reports said X-rays were taken later, and they were negative. One pitch later, Utley sent Burnett's offering high and deep into the right-field stands.
Ryan Howard followed with a walk, bringing Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland to the mound for a visit before the first out was recorded. But a strikeout and two groundball outs later, and the inning was over.
After Utley got him back in the lead with one swing, Lee responded with a quick top of the second and allowed a walk to Damon before shutting down the Yankees in the third.
Utley's walk started what turned into a three-run third for the Phillies. After he stole second and Howard walked, Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez delivered back-to-back RBI singles to extend the lead to five runs, with all six Phillies runs charged to Burnett.
The Yankees are seeking their 27th World Series title. The 1985 Royals were the last team to rally from a 3-1 deficit to win the World Series, one of only six such comebacks in 104 previous Fall Classics.
The Phillies were relying on their ace Lee to get them to a Game 6, and he left the game as the pitcher of record, in the lead. But it wasn't up to his previous postseason standard. Lee entered the crucial game for the defending champion Phillies on a dominant postseason roll, having gone 3-0 with a 0.54 ERA in his first four starts. That included a complete-game victory over the Yankees in Game 1 in which he allowed only one unearned run.
The teams split the two games at Yankee Stadium before the series shifted to Philadelphia, where the Yankees won Game 3 and Game 4 before the Phillies took Game 5.
John Schlegel is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
