Chase Utley doesn't always have to see C.C. Sabathia in order to take Yankee pitching deep and, while he's at it, tie Reggie Jackson's record for bombs in a single World Series.
The Phillies don't always have to get frozen by Yankee threats in the top of the ninth, no matter how stubbornly Johnny Damon refuses to give in, take it like a manperson, and not even think about picking up his sixth hit in two Series games.
Cliff Lee doesn't always have to look like Sandy Koufax to keep the Yankees from getting their bats into an uproar, and it helps to remind him that even Koufax had his (extremely rare) days getting waxed by the big boys — even if they weren't named Alex Rodriguez in the top of the seventh.
And the Phillies don't always have to go meekly into that none-too-good gray November night. But whether they go fighting or send the Yankees away as empty-handed in the end as they managed to send them Monday night, however, is going to depend on factors beyond their control that should have been theirs to control.
There isn't anything much in the way of precipitation seen in the offing for the Bronx over the next several days. Unless it's the showering of abuse Yankee fans are likely to send Pedro Martinez's way when he hits the bump for Game 6.
But all of a sudden there's a change in the weather in the Philadelphia clubhouse.
The good change: the Phillies are beginning to think they can produce the impossible again. You tend to feel that way when the Yankees turn on the pressure in the top of the ninth and the worst you have to show for it is one measly run slipping home while Derek Jeter, of all people, is dialing Area Code 6-4-3, though you can feel the heavy sigh of relief when Ryan Madson flicks away another Damon hit and swishes Mark Teixiera for the game.
Utley had the big hand in resurrecting that attitude in the first place. A big hand and two big flies, to be precise.
With first and second (Jimmy [The Tongue] Rollins: leadoff walk; Shane Victorino: drilled on the knuckles while pulling back a bunt) and nobody out, Utley caught on that A.J. Burnett — working short rest — didn't have much in the way of control early, and he wasn't about to let the Yankee right-hander rediscover it, either. Utley sent the first pitch he saw about three or four rows into the right field seats.
Six innings later, with Burnett long gone and the Phillies fast and loose in a Yankee bullpen that hasn't been a guaranteed lock if the chances that The Mariano will be needed to mark the bill paid are slim and none, with slim already leaving the building, Utley proved that sometimes what you need is a Coke. Phil, that is. He wrestled the reliever to a leadoff full count before sending one about six rows behind the landing strip of his first launch.
"That's hard to do in batting practice sometimes," Damon marveled, "and he's doing it in World Series games. He's found a groove ... Hopefully, we have something better planned for him on Wednesday."
If Utley has his way, the better plans involve Andy Pettitte being somewhat less than his 16-postseason-game-winning self and something yummy to send onto the Number 4 El, while Martinez commits patricide against the short-rested Yankee.
If he does, he'll leave Charlie Manuel with a big decision on his head. Manuel is the manager who would sooner have run Game 5 from his dentist's chair than send Lee to the mound on short rest. Now he's thinking about whether to send Lee out on two days' rest come Thursday.
This after Lee on Monday shook off a first-inning Yankee run, and held his own while his mates enjoyed a rollicking romp, until he ran out of petrol in the Yankee seventh and A-Rod didn't give him any viable chance of getting to the nearest filling station, driving one that snuck past a diving Raul Ibanez in left for a two-run double and an end to his evening.
Ibanez got his in the bottom of the seventh, too. Things go better with Coke for Ibanez, it seems, the left fielder continuing to snap out of his own Series hitting funk by launching one into roughly Utley's zip code for the eighth Philadelphia run.
"As far as my availability," Lee told reporters after the Phillies held on for an 8-6 guaranteed return to the Bronx, "I'm available."
"We don't know about that yet," Manuel said. "I'll talk to him about what he thinks about if he can pitch at all or something."
They may be having the same conversation in the Yankee clubhouse. And Joe Girardi has some serious thinking to do, as well. He's already taking the heat for trying to beat the Phillies with a three-man, three-days'-rest rotation, and he's probably feeling it getting a little warmer under his seat now that he's been reminded how ineffective Burnett has been, historically, on three days' rest.
"It's the worst feeling in the world," Burnett said bravely after Game 5 was gone, "to have the chance to do something special and to fail like that."
It may be a worse feeling if Pettitte drops any kind of hint that he's feeling less than his customary self come Wednesday. Joe Girardi says if Pettitte says he's feeling good, he's going. Feeling good and looking good have differences a World Series tends to amplify louder than the bass lines in a hip-hop concert. And Girardi can't afford to have his ears blown out like that right now.
The Yankees may have a bullpen that's dubious at best unless there's a big chance of getting the game to The Mariano, but the Phillies have bullpen issues of his own. From the look of things Monday night, Brad Lidge wasn't going to get anywhere near the mound unless every last alternative had been exhausted. The Phillies didn't look like they were willing to take that many risks with the Yankees managing to chip their way back to within two of tying it up in the top of the ninth, and Lidge in Game 4 didn't look at all like the guy who'd re-horsed himself earlier in this postseason.
And the Yankees still have command of the Series. "We just have to remember," Damon said, "that we are up in the Series. They still have to beat us two times."
These Phillies aren't exactly afraid of challenges. Nor do they need anyone to remind them that the willing spirit may not always be enough. They'd just rather not think about it right now. Chase Utley made it that much easier for them not to think that way.
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