Maybe this will be a good series after all..? One night after an emotionally and mentally draining game, the Phillies came back and made a statement that this series is NOT over. After losing the first two games on their home field, the Phillies beat the Yankees 8-6 to improve to with a 3-2 World Series deficit. Cliff Lee was not dominating as he was in Game 1, but he did the trick and held the lead in a game that was nearly fully controlled by the Phillies – other than a 9th inning scare. Chase Utley went deep twice in record fashion to force a Game 6 on Wednesday in New York.

Utley comes home after first goner

The Yankees got the ball rolling early on again in this series as they scored a run in the top of the 1st on an Alex Rodriguez double to the right field corner. Phillies fans began to hold their breath to see their superman from Game 1 give up a run so early. I honestly thought this could be a sign of bad things for the Phils after such a draining loss less than 24 hours earlier.

But as the bottom of the 1st came around, a different group of fans were forced to hold their breath. AJ Burnett was just not prepared for his second start of the series – this one was on only three days rest. It became evident as Burnett allowed the first two men to reach base, followed by a blast by Chase Utley to give the Phillies a 3-1 lead after one inning. I get the feeling that despite having Lee on the mound, those three first inning runs (after giving up one) were huge for their psyche. The Phillies then knew this was their game and that they would force a Game 6 in New York.

The madness continued for Burnett and the Yankees in the bottom of the 3rd inning, as Burnett was forced to take an early exit. AJ gave up back-to-back walks to Utley and Ryan Howard, followed by RBI singles by Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez. Time to hit the showers for Mr. Burnett. Girardi takes him out before any outs in the 3rd inning to finish off a completely wasted start. But I’ll get to that later.

The Phillies scored a total of three runs in the 3rd, totaling 6 runs off Burnett in 2+ innings. Quite a different feel from Game 2 in New York when Burnett had one of the best starts of his career in the win. The Yankees picked up another run in the 5th on a bizarre RBI groundout by Johnny Damon, in which the ball bounced foul, then fair, then landed on the line. The barrel of the bat went flying toward Derek Jeter as he ran towards second base and Eric Hinske waited until Howard went to step on first to scurry home. Although, the Yankees were still down 6-2 with Lee still in the game.

You know who’s having one of the greatest World Series of all time? Chase Utley. Not only did he hit the go-ahead homer in the 1st inning, but Chase went deep again in the bottom of the 7th for his 5th homerun of the series! That homer also ties Yankee great Reggie Jackson for the most homeruns in one World Series. So Utley ties Mr. October – in November!

As for the Phillies savior Cliff Lee, he just kept rolling along even though he wasn’t nearly as dominant as Game 1. The only reason Lee stayed in the game past 6 innings was because Charlie Manuel didn’t want to be the guy to take out his best pitcher too early and end his season as a result. Despite a long bottom of the 7th and being up 6 runs with only two innings left, Manuel kept Lee in the game. I’ll highlight this in a separate post on Tuesday, but I feel Manuel should have taken out Lee a few innings earlier to save him for a few innings in a potential Game 7. But I guess you have to get there first.

Lee was forced out of the game though after allowing a two-run double to A-Rod in the top of the 8th. As he left, his team was still up 8-4, but he left with no outs in the inning. Chan Ho Park came into the game and got three outs, but one more run scored on a sac fly. So the pitcher with credit of the only reason the Phillies made the WS totaled 7+ innings and five earned runs.

Note that despite a save situation, Manuel put in Ryan Madson to close out the game instead of Brad Lidge, who gave up three 9th inning runs in Game 5. But who could blame Manuel for doing that. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what Manuel would have done in the regular season. Then after a leadoff double by Jorge Posada, Brett Myers warmed up in the bullpen. Although Madson gritted this one out and held on for the 8-6 win to force a Game 6.

Question of the night: Will forcing his starters to continually throw on three days rest back fire for Girardi and the Yankees?  Right now, we can’t really know the answer. CC was good in Game 4 and Burnett was terrible in Game 5. That’s 1-1. If the Yankees do that in the next two games, they actually win a World Series. So let’s not go nuts yet Yankees fans.

So the series goes back to New York with the Yankees still one game away from title number 27. The early indication is that the starters will be Pedro Martinez and Andy Pettitte, but with a day off on Tuesday, each manager can mull it over and talk to the candidates. Now that the offenses have picked up for each team, it should be a fun one or two games at The Stadium.