Yankees Come Oh So Close To Stealing Game Five

PHILLIES 8

YANKEES 6

With a 3-1 lead in the World Series, some thought that the Yankees would mail in game five in order to have home field for game six, where they could clinch their world title in front of their own fans in the new Yankee Stadium.

Instead the Yankees did what a baseball team with a 3-1 lead is supposed to do, work like hell to try to end the series as soon as possible.

The Phillies bombed A.J. Burnett early in this game, posting up six runs in the game's first three innings. Chase Utley led the way, when he blasted a three run home run in the first inning to give Philadelphia a 3-1 lead.

In the third, singles by Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth brought home two more Philly runs to make it 5-1 Philadelphia.

Cliff Lee was dominating the Yankees through the first six innings, and by the seventh, the Yankee bull pen was getting bombed as well. Utley and Ibanez lauched two rockets to right center field off of reliever Phil Coke to give Philadelphia an 8-2 lead.

At this point it appeared that the game would turn into a laugher and the Yankees would accept defeat in order to play another day in the Bronx. Not so fast.

In the eighth inning, the Yankees finally got to Lee. Johnny Damon led the inning off with a single, and Mark Tiexeria followed with a double to make things a little more interesting. Then, Alex Rodriguez lined a double off of the glove of Raul Ibanez to plate Damon and Tiexiera to make it 8-4. Lee was taken out for Chan Ho Park who worked around a sacrifice fly by Robinson Cano to get Philadelphia out of the inning still up 8-5.

The Yankee comeback made it clear that the Bombers had every intention of winning game five, and ending this series.

In the ninth, things continued to get dicy for the Phillies. Jorge Posada led off with a double off of Ryan Madson. Then, Hideki Matsui singled to put two on with nobody out for Derek Jeter. Jeter promptly grounded into a double play; Posada scored from third to make it 8-6, but there was no one on with two out.

Damon came up to bat again, and drilled a 2-2 single past second base to make things hot again. With Mark Tiexeria and Alex Rodriguez looming, it looked for sure that the Yankees would come back and win the World Series. In fact, no team had ever come back to win a World Series game from three plus runs down; this appeared destined to become the first. Box score.

Instead, Tiexeria struck out swinging on a nasty change-up in the dirt to end the game sending the series back to the Bronx. The Yankees will indeed look to close things out at Yankee Stadium.