Rodriguez delivered the biggest hit
of his career, a go-ahead, two-out double in the ninth inning off Brad
Lidge, and the New York Yankees took advantage of Johnny Damon's daring
dash to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4 on Sunday night for a 3-1
lead in the World Series.
Derek Jeter delivered again and
Mariano Rivera closed it out as the Yankees moved within one win of
that elusive 27th championship and their first since 2000. Rodriguez could
really savor this victory — seething after again being hit by a pitch,
he struck back with his potent black bat.
The Yankees will try to clinch it Monday night when A.J. Burnett faces October ace Cliff Lee.
"Facing Brad Lidge, he's a great
competitor. He's had a lot of success late here. Just trying to make
contact there," Rodriguez said.
Chase Utley and Pedro Feliz hit late
home runs for the Phillies to tie the game at 4. Then it moved to the
ninth and the Phillies brought in Lidge. A postseason star last year, the closer had
struggled all season before regaining his touch this October.
But November was not so kind to him.
Lidge had been the only closer in the
playoffs who hadn't allowed a run until the Yankees tagged him. With
two outs, Damon capped a nine-pitch at-bat with a single. The Phillies
overshifted their infield to the right side for Mark Teixeira and Damon
took off.
Damon beat the one-hop throw to steal
second, popped up from his slide and noticed no one was covering third.
That's because Feliz had handled the throw, and Damon easily beat the
third baseman to the bag for a rare double-steal — fact is, who'd ever
seen it?
Perhaps rattled by the previous play, Lidge then hit
Teixeira with a pitch. So up stepped Rodriguez, 1-for-13 to that point
in his first World Series and looking nothing like the feared slugger
he was earlier in these playoffs.
Putting all his past postseason
failures behind him, Rodriguez lined a solid double into the left-field
corner for a 5-4 lead. He connected so solidly, the sound echoed
throughout Citizens Bank Park. Maybe it wasn't such a surprise —
Rodriguez had homered and doubled in three prior at-bats against Lidge.
The crowd was silent when Jorge
Posada followed with a two-run single. And just like that, the Yankees
were on the verge of celebrating and the defending champion Phillies
were on the brink of getting eliminated.
Feliz rocked Yankees setup man Joba Chamberlain with a two-out, solo home run in the eighth that tied it at 4.
Utley homered again off CC Sabathia,
finishing the New York starter in the seventh. It was Utley's third
shot off Sabathia in this Series and closed the Phillies' deficit to 4-3.