PHILADELPHIA — Hideki Matsui hit 28 home runs and collected 90 RBIs

during the regular season. He's batting .278 in the postseason and torched Pedro Martinez for

the tiebreaking homer Thursday night in Game Two of the World Series.

But don't look for him much this weekend in Citizens Bank Park. Matsui has two bad knees

and hasn't played the outfield all season. With no designated hitter in the National League

park, it looks like the New York Yankees are only going to be able to use him in a

pinch-hitting role for the next three games.

"I'm not frustrated at all," Matsui said through an interpreter prior to Friday's workout.

"That's the situation, the role I have to accept. You just have to make the most out of it."

Matsui said he was taking groundballs during the season hoping to get back in the field but

stopped in mid-August. He resumed that work the last couple of weeks in advance of this

situation but it's not expected he'll play any outfield.

Manager Joe Girardi will be choosing from Nick Swisher or Jerry Hairston to play right

field. Johnny Damon will stay in left with Melky Cabrera in center.

"As productive as he's been for us this year, you don't want to lose his bat," Girardi said

of Matsui. "It's something that's been going on for years [in the World Series] and we're

prepared for it."

Game Three pitcher Andy Pettitte has been taking batting practice and took more Friday.

"I've started swinging just to try to make sure I don't blow a rib cage out or anything

like that when I go up there," Pettitte joked. "Hopefully you can get a bunt down, which I

feel pretty comfortable doing."

History shows tonight's game is a huge one. The team winning Game Three in a 1-1 series

has gone on to win the title nine of the last 10 times. Oddly enough, the lone exception in

that run was the 2003 Yankees, who won Game Three at Florida but went on to lose the last

three games of the series.

The Yankees want to see if they're in a 2-1 lead or a 2-1 hole before deciding on using CC

Sabathia on three days' rest or Chad Gaudin in Game Four.

"Physically we'll continue to talk to CC and see how our guys are doing," Girardi said.

Philly ace Cliff Lee, meanwhile, has never gone on three days' rest so manager Charlie

Manuel said he didn't give consideration to using him.

That's really pushing him because he's never done it before," Manuel said. "If he had done

it before like CC has, there's a big difference. I think you're taking a chance on really

pushing him. ... Definitely we don't want to hurt him."

The Yankees will be playing three days in a row for the first time in the postseason, so

that means don't look for two-inning saves from Mariano Rivera. He threw 39 pitches Thursday

to get the final six outs, the most in his postseason career.

"With the depth of our bullpen, we should be fine," Girardi said. "You have to be careful

using Mo a couple innings and limiting the amount of pitches that you can use him. It would be

very difficult to throw him 30 and 35 and 40 pitches and try to do back-to-back [games]. So

we'll have to be careful about that."

Tonight's game is just the second in World Series history played on Halloween. The other

was in 2001, when the Yankees rallied for their dramatic 4-3, 10-inning win over Arizona in

Game Three at the old Yankee Stadium. Derek Jeter won it with a walkoff home run four minutes

after midnight, earning him the moniker of baseball's first "Mr. November."

So many reporters cover the World Series that even new stadiums with large press boxes

like Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park are overflowing with people. The crush gets

particularly bad immediately after the game as the hundreds of media reps pile down stairs and

elevators to the clubhouses.

Things got really heated following Game Two in the Bronx. Shortly after the final out, the

elevator from the press box was suddenly shut off. Dozens of reporters, with newspaper

deadlines looming, were also locked in the stairwell leading to the basement. Others who had

already made it down were quickly herded into rooms and told to stay there.

So what was going on? A security threat? Some other police activity? Nope. Just Yankees

security officials driving aging and frail owner George Steinbrenner out of the ballpark

through the tunnel and preventing reporters and cameramen from seeing him.