Sunday night’s Game 4 in Philadelphia had just about every stroryline of the 2009 season revisited on baseball’s biggest stage. From CC Sabathia going on three days rest to Brad Lidge imploding, the Yankees took advantage of Philly mistakes and won the game 7-4 to take a 3-1 lead in the World Series. Sabathia and Joe Blanton went head-to-head in a matchup that favored Sabathia, but the game stayed close enough to come down to the end. After a comeback by the Phillies, Brad Lidge came into the game and allowed a game-winning hit to Alex Rodriguez. No one should be surprised by this game, and I’m afraid the Phillies fans are the ones that are the least surprised to see their closer blow it.

A-Rod drills the game winning hit

The Yankees did what many people thought they would do against Joe Blanton right off the bat – and that’s jump on him. Derek Jeter led off the game with an infield single, which was followed with a Johnny Damon double. Mark Teixeira grounded out to first to drive in the Yankees first run only three batters into the game. Then, the fun started. The next batter, Alex Rodriguez, got hit AGAIN. It’s the third time in the last two games that A-Rod has been hit by Phillies pitching, and he looked really pissed off about it. So what’s the outcome? The umpires collaborated and decided to issue warnings for each team. I hate when umps do this mostly because if they feel warnings are necessary then they believe the pitcher hit the batter on purpose. But if that’s the case, why not just throw out that pitcher? Now, they are endangering any pitcher who likes to throw inside since they could be thrown out of the game for hitting a batter by mistake. Very lame; although, this never came back up in throughout the game.

The Yankees only got one more run that inning, on a Jorge Posada sacrifice fly, for a 2-0 lead after a half inning. The Phillies did get one back in the bottom of the inning though. After a bloop double by Shane Victorino, Chase Utley drilled a ball off the wall in right center to score the Phils first run. The Phillies prolonged the inning but could not get any more runs as Sabathia got out of the jam.

In the bottom of the 4th, with two outs, Pedro Feliz drilled a liner to left. As Ryan Howard rounded third base to try and score, Damon threw the ball home on a couple hops. Howard beat the ball home and belly flopped over home plate, but he NEVER touched home plate! It was obvious from the real time moment and replay solidified it! The home plate umpire didn’t call Howard safe because he never saw him touch it, but as Howard walked away from the plate (which he never decided to go back and touch, even to be sure he didn’t miss it!) the umpire just called him safe. It was almost like the umpire didn’t want to call Howard out and have to deal with the ridicule – even though it was the right call! Chalk another missed call up! Nevertheless, the score was tied at 2 through four innings.

It didn’t take very long for the Yankees to jump back on top, and they even got some insurance too. Jeter drove in Nick Swisher with a single in the hole to retake a 3-2 lead. Next, Damon blooped a single to right to score Melky Cabrera from second, who happened to guess correctly that the ball would fall with only one out. Lucky for Melky, the ball fell, and the Yankees led 4-2.

Blanton only made through 6 innings and gave up four runs. He wasn’t as horrible as most people expected him to be, but against a pitcher like Sabathia he to avoid a few more runs from scoring. I guess it’s easier said than done.

Despite trailing for most of the game, the Phillies weren’t going down without a fight. Utley homered off Sabathia for the third time this series in the bottom of the 7th, which brought Girardi out to the mound to replace CC. I felt this was a little premature since the lefty Howard was due up next. But I guess it’s hard for me to second-guess Girardi because Damaso Marte came in and got Howard to fly out to end the inning. I still believe Sabathia should have stayed in for that at bat. So CC leaves the game after giving up three runs in 6 2/3 innings. Not bad for 3 days rest, but it was left up to the bullpen.

It looked like the bridge to Mariano Rivera would be successful for the Yankees as Joba Chamberlain came in the 8th inning blowing smoke. After easy strikeouts against Werth and Ibanez, Feliz drilled a homer off his fastball. The Phillies were only one strike away from being forced to get a run off Mariano Rivera. Instead, the game is tied at 4.

Whether the Phillies tied it or not Brad Lidge was coming into the game for the 9th. I didn’t think Lidge would do well because he has had SO many days off since pitching. Well, a week and a half off from pitching is not something that works often for closers, and it didn’t work for Lidge. After two quick outs, Johnny Damon singled and stole second, and then he stole third – on the same play! With a shift that put 3B Feliz behind second base to field the throw from home, Damon got up from his slide and just immediately bolted for third base. At first one would think Damon lost his mind, but after he reached third easily you realized it was a great play. That apparently rattled Lidge (who should’ve been covering third) because he then hit Texieira and gave up a double to A-Rod to give the Yankees the lead. So A-Rod got his revenge for getting hit three times in the last two days. Then, just for fun, the Yankees got two more runs from a Posada single to give them a 7-4 lead. 

Damon literally steals third

The rally by the Yankees in the top of the 9th was all with two outs. Brad Lidge, the man everyone thought was back to normal, blows yet another game in the 2009 season. And of course, it’s the biggest game of the entire season. After Lidge got the two quick outs you could hear the crowd erupt. They weren’t cheering so loudly because they were so happy, they were cheering because they were so nervous. It was with good cause too.

Mariano Rivera did come into this game as it was planned before the Phillies tied it, and he got an 8-pitch save. The Phillies have to be completely drained. However, they have their main man on the mound for Game 5 on Monday – Cliff Lee. So there may be a Game 6, but that would require some more wins anyway. Lee will be facing AJ Burnett, who pitched a great game in Game 2 on Thursday night. He will be pitching on three days rest too, in which he is 3-0 in his career. Not a big sample, but I’m sure he’ll be ready.