Phillies 8, Yankees 6
Phillies' Mr. November sends Series back to Bronx
Utley rips two homers, tying Reggie Jackson's Fall Classic mark
PHILADELPHIA — The New York Yankees still haven't solved Cliff Lee or Chase Utley enough. The Philadelphia Phillies have figured out A.J. Burnett.
Pretty simple analysis of why the World Series is heading back to the Bronx.
Lee threw seven strong innings before tiring and Utley tied the all-time Series record with two more home runs as the Phillies got a quick jump en route to an 8-6 win Monday night in Citizens Bank Park.
Burnett was torched for six runs and got only six outs as the Yankees were playing from behind for good after Utley's three-run bomb to right in the bottom of the first.
So the Yankees lead the series, 3-2, and get another shot to wrap it up at home Wednesday night. Pedro Martinez will start for the Phils and the Yankees are expected to announce today they'll go with Game Three winner Andy Pettitte on three days rest. It's the first time the Series has stretched to Game Six since Florida wrapped up its second title in 2003 at the old Yankee Stadium.
Utley took Phil Coke deep for a solo shot in the seventh to give him five home runs in the Series. That ties the mark set by Reggie Jackson in the Yankees' six-game win over Los Angeles in 1977.
He took CC Sabathia deep twice in Game One and thus joins Kansas City's Willie Aikens (1980 versus the Phillies) as the only player with a pair of multi-homer games in Series history.
"Obviously it's great company," Utley said. "At some point, not right now, maybe I'll look back on it and see what kind of special moment it is. But right now our goal is to win two more games."
"When he gets hot, definitely he can get hot and stay hot for a month or two," said manager Charlie Manuel.
The Phillies only need Utley to stay hot two more games. His three-run home run in the first inning quickly shot the Phillies into a 3-1 lead and reversed the momentum the Yankees seemed to grab on Alex Rodriguez's RBI double in the top of the inning off Lee. The Phillies KO'd Burnett with three more runs in the third.
"Chase's [first] home run was so big," catcher Carlos Ruiz said. "Everything changed after that."
History is still on the Yankees' side to claim their 27th championship. They're 8-0 when holding a 3-1 lead in the World Series and no one has come back from such a deficit since Kansas City did it to St. Louis in 1985.
"If we had pitched better, we probably would have won tonight," was the assessment of Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
Tough to argue.
Burnett baffled the Phils in Game Two, allowing a run on four hits and striking out nine. It was a far different story this time and it really had nothing to do with the fact he was pitching on three days rest.
Burnett was 4-0 in his career on short rest and a logical choice for Girardi. The only other real possibility, Chad Gaudin, has pitched all of one inning in the last six weeks. Instead, Burnett pitched a lemon. It was similar to the four-run first he had in Game Five of the ALCS in Los Angeles.
"He just lacked command tonight similar to what he did in Anaheim," Girardi said. "But he was able to recover better there. Tonight he just wasn't able to get it going."
But while the Phillies didn't do much of anything with Burnett the first time, they seemed to take a different approach in this game. Several Philly batters were jumping on pitches early in the count, mostly fastballs, and that prevented Burnett from using his devastating curveball as an out pitch.
That was the strategy Utley used on the game's key swing. Jimmy Rollins led off the first with a single and Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch trying to bunt. Utley then destroyed Burnett's first pitch, a 94-mph fastball, deep into the stands in right to send the crowd of 46,178 into a frenzy and give the Phillies a 3-1 lead.
"Scoring runs if you can do it early is important," Utley said. "It takes a little pressure off everybody and Cliff, even though Cliff doesn't seem like he gets rattled too much."
It was an atypical outing for Lee, who was charged with five earned runs after giving up just two in his previous four postseason starts.
Rodriguez's two-out RBI to right in the top of the first gave the Yankees an early jump on Lee but the left-hander responded by holding New York to just two hits in innings 2-7.
Lee tired in the eighth as the first three men reached, with A-Rod's two-run double making it 8-4. Robinson Cano's sacrifice fly made it 8-5.
"It was a game where I had to battle a little bit," Lee said. "Fortunately we scored a lot of runs and made things easier for me."
The Yankees twice brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth off Ryan Madson but he got a key double-play grounder from Derek Jeter and struck out struggling Mark Teixeira to end the game. Teixeira is just 2 for 19
"I'm not going to walk guys," said Madson, who got the ninth-inning assignment in the wake of Brad Lidge's implosion in the ninth Sunday. "I wanted to give them something to hit. On Jeter, I attacked the zone, gave him a good sinker and he rolled it over."
If the Series goes to Game Seven on Thursday, might Lee be able to pitch in relief? Sure sounds like it.
"I'm available," he said. "I'll pitch whenever they want me to pitch. That's about as clear as I can say it. I"m ready whenever."
Victorino was struck on the hand and it appeared to bother him while swinging. Manuel pulled him in favor of Ben Francisco to start the eighth and Manuel said X-rays were negative.
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