Yanks look smart in every gamble

By BOB KLAPISCH
BERGEN COUNTY RECORD COLUMNIST
http://www.northjersey.com
Monday, November 2, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - There were no words to properly capture what the Yankees had just done to the Phillies, which is why Charlie Manuel’s face resembled a clenched first. The manager could barely finish a coherent sentence, stumbling along for an explanation as to why the Yankees are on the verge of a world championship today.

Yankees' Johnny Damon rounds second and heads to third as Phillies' Pedro Feliz chases during the ninth inning of Game 4 in Philadelphia. The Yankees won 7-4 to take a 3-1 lead in the series. (AP)

He knew the impossible had just happened in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, when the Yankees rallied for three runs. With two out, Johnny Damon singled off Brad Lidge, promptly stole second and never stopped – he stole third, too, when he realized the base was unprotected by the Phillies’ defense.

“That’s the first time that happened to us all year,” Manuel said numbly, as his world was about to collapse. Two pitches later, Alex Rodriguez punished a run-scoring double, the decisive blow in the Bombers’ 7-4 victory. Jorge Posada followed with a two-run single but by then the Phillies were already broken, beaten.

The nearly-riotous crowd at Citizens Bank Park went dead-cold silent. No one had come back on the Phillies like this, not this late in the season, not when the season was on the line.

Incredibly , the Yankees had blown a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth, as Pedro Feliz beat Joba Chamberlain with a two-out home run over the wall in left-center. Chamberlain had teased the Yankees into thinking he was unhittable, pumping one 94-mph fastball after another while striking out Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez. But the Phillies proved otherwise, poised to ruin the Yankees’ bullpen one more time.

But it was the Yankees who took apart Lidge, who hadn’t pitched in almost two weeks. With two out in the ninth, he and Damon went to war, battling each other for nine pitches before it ended with a single to left.

What happened next represented the turning point: the Phillies decided to play the shift on Mark Teixeira, pulling third baseman Pedro Feliz all the way towards second base. Damon knew he’d steal at some point during the at-bat, also realizing that Feliz would have to cover the bag in any such attempt.

Even before he took off, Damon had a premonition that third base would be unoccupied, inviting a follow-up theft. It all depended on the throw from Carlos Ruiz and how Feliz caught it.

“I had to see where the ball was, how Pedro caught it and whether it dragged him off the base,” Damon would later say. The Yankee hierarchy was obviously watching, too, and will digest the data as it decides this winter what to do about Damon’s free agency.

He wants to stay, his teammates are unanimous in petitioning for his return. After the way Damon caught the Phillies napping, it’s hard to make a case against him.

As Damon slid safely into second base, all the moving parts were now in his favor: the throw did force Feliz to stumble, third base was wide open and Damon knew there was no one who could beat him in a 90-foot race, least of all Feliz.

“I know I still have some decent speed in the tank, and I also knew Pedro’s speed,” he said. “If it was (Angels’ third baseman) Chone Figgins it might’ve been tough.”

The game wasn’t over yet, but the Phillies were already in a state of shock. Manuel said, “we’ve got to be heads up. Somebody has got to be covering third base. Usually, it’s the catcher (who) tries to get down there.”

Now on third, Damon was able to create a critical distraction for Lidge. The closer was less likely to throw his killer slider to A-Rod, fearing one might bounce in the dirt and whistle past Ruiz.

Instead, Lidge was forced to go war against Rodriguez with pure power; his fastball against A-Rod’s bat speed. Two pitches later, Rodriguez sent a heater screaming into the left field corner, scoring Damon and turning Citizens Bank Park into an open-air mausoleum.

Damon spoke for the entire franchise when he said, “without Alex, who knows where the road stops?”

One more win and the journey is complete. Suddenly, it’s the Phillies, not the Yankees who regret not gambling in Game 4. Joe Girardi ran the table, throwing CC Sabathia on three days’ rest, but Manuel wouldn’t stick his neck out like that. He insisted on starting Joe Blanton, who walked to the mound with a career 8.18 career ERA against the Bombers.

Manuel was repeatedly asked about the wisdom of leaving the game in Blanton’s hands because, after all, if Cliff Lee didn’t start Game 4, then he couldn’t start Game 7, either. So what was Manuel thinking, exactly? This was his logic: Lee is not Sabathia.

“You’re asking Cliff Lee to do something that he has never did before,” Manuel said. “But we’re also asking him to do it in a very big, important place, and that’s in the World Series. I didn’t have to think very long at all about that, and neither did (pitching coach Rich) Dubee.”

Lee didn’t exactly take his manager off the hook, saying he would’ve been more than happy to pitch Sunday night. The lefthander refused to push his point push too hard – it would’ve been disrespectful to Manuel to cross the line – but his message was nevertheless clear.

“Anything Charlie wants to me to do, that’s fine with me,” Lee told reporters before the game. Without saying another word, the Phillies’ ace underscored what it means to suck it up in late October: Sabathia did, and it’s the Yankees who found themselves nine innings from their season-long dream becoming a reality.