WORLD SERIES GAME 5 | PHILLIES 8, YANKEES 6
Chase Utley powers Phillies to Game 5 World Series victory
Chase Utley tied a World Series home run record as the Phillies withstood a late rally by the Yankees to force Game 6.
BY CLARK SPENCER
cspencer@MiamiHerald.com
PHILADELPHIA -- The New York Yankees haven't toasted a World Series title since the turn of the century. So what's one more day? Or two?
Or even . . .
Yankees fans don't even want to think about the worst-case scenario. But now they must consider the possibility after the Bronx Bombers took it on the chin at Citizens Bank Park on Monday, failing to drive the final nail into the Philadelphia Phillies with a 8-6 loss in Game 5.
Chase Utley walloped two home runs -- his fourth and fifth -- to equal Reggie Jackson's record for one Series and perhaps earn the title of ``Mr. November'' in the process. If that becomes the case, there can be little argument from the Yankees, who had to put their celebration plans on hold because of Utley's power and Cliff Lee's pitching.
And so it's back to the Big Apple for at least one more game, if not two, to settle matters. It will be the first Series since 2003 -- the year the Marlins won it all -- that it will take more than five games to produce a winner.
The good news for the Yankees is they're done facing Lee, who has dealt them their only two defeats. Utley they're not done seeing. The sweet-swinging second baseman not only etched his name in the record books, but he also kept hope alive for the Phillies.
``When he gets hot, he can get hot, and stay hot for a month or two,'' Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of Utley. ``Knock on wood, he's sitting on that right now.''
Lee was not quite as dominant as he was in his Game 1 win.
But he was a heap better than his Yankees counterpart and fellow Arkansan, A.J. Burnett, who could have made the 108-mile trip back to New York and caught the end of Monday's game on television, so quickly was he knocked out.
The defending champion Phillies had not only lost Games 3 and 4 in their home park, but what little enthusiasm that remained with their fans seemed to all but evaporate in the first inning as they watched Johnny Damon sprint home from first on Alex Rodriguez's double into the right-field corner. It was the 16th RBI of these playoffs for Rodriguez, setting a Yankees postseason record.
Perhaps more dispiriting early on for the Phillies: The quick start for the Yankees proved Lee to be mortal. They were helpless against the Phillies ace in their Game 1 defeat, applying only one harmless blemish, a ninth-inning run that was unearned. But Lee would eventually settle into a groove on Monday.
And what little damage the Yankees inflicted on Lee in the first was nothing compared with the hurt the Phillies put on Burnett, who was coming off a Game 2 performance that was almost as impressive as Lee's.
Burnett was pitching on three days' rest -- not the normal four -- just as CC Sabathia had done the night before and Andy Pettitte is expected to do when the Series resumes on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
Burnett was shaky at the outset. He gave up a leadoff single to Jimmy Rollins, then drilled Shane Victorino with a pitch, hitting him in his left hand after he squared to bunt. Burnett's next pitch was belted by Utley into the right-field bleachers for a three-run home run.
It was the fourth home run of the Series for Utley. Perhaps more significantly, it was also the first of eight Phillies home runs that provided more than one run. The previous seven had all been solo blasts, the kind that failed to put a significant dent in the score.
Two innings later, the Phillies sent Burnett to the showers.
He issued a pair of walks, back-to-back RBI singles to Jayson Werth and Raul Ibañez, and that was that. Burnett was yanked without recording an out in the third and charged with six runs.
The night was not over for Utley, however. Far from it.
With the Phillies holding a 6-2 lead, Utley led off the seventh with a home run -- his second of the night -- off Phil Coke. The five blasts matched Jackson's record, which was set with the Yankees in the 1977 Series and helped to earn him the nickname of Mr. October.
``Obviously, it's great company,'' Utley said of joining Jackson in the record books. ``At some point, not right now, maybe I'll look back on it and see what a special moment it is.''
Ibañez added another home run for the Phillies, making it 8-2.
``Those were tack-on runs that hurt us,'' said Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
That's because the Yankees refused to go down without a fight. They scored three runs in the eighth to cut the Phillies' lead to 8-5. And they put the Phillies through a white-knuckle ninth, scoring a run off Ryan Madson to make it 8-6 and bringing the tying runner to the plate in Mark Teixeira, who struck out to end the game.
``Basically, our backs were against the wall,'' said Lee, who was knocked out in the eighth. ``We're still fighting.''
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