Phillies refuse to die, beat Yankees to force Game 6

THEY STAYED LATE into the night - or, rather, early into the morning. First came midnight, then 1 a.m., and then the clock started ticking toward 2. Not all of the players remained, but enough to provide conversation, not just about the unfortuante events that had transpired hours earlier, but about the course of action from that point forward.

Later, as Carlos Ruiz drove home with some friends from his native Panama, navigating South Philadelphia's mostly empty streets, the Phillies catcher spoke words that were similar to the ones that floated through the home clubhouse in the wake of the three-run, ninth-inning rally that had given the Yankees a 3-1 series lead in Game 4 Sunday night.

"It was a little quiet,'' Ruiz said, "but at the same time, I told them, 'It's not over.' Tomorrow I'm going to come back and give 100 percent, and I know my teammates are going to do it too.''

All season, the Phillies have talked of their mental fortitude, of the way they shed defeat like a waterproof deck, of their remarkable ability to live 24 hours at a time. Last night, in an 8-6 victory over the Yankees in their first elimination game in 2 years, they offered verifiable evidence that perhaps they do carry with them an unquantifiable quality that can make them just the fourth team in history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven World Series with the final two games on the road.

The odds weren't necessarily against them last night, not with playoff sensation Cliff Lee on the mound and a sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park. But after Alex Rodriguez' RBI double gave the Yankees four runs in their last five outs of the series, not to mention a 1-0 lead in the first inning of Game 5, even the most strong-willed of teams might have allowed visions of an opponent's celebration to flash through their heads.

New York had scored 19 runs in its last 24 innings after mustering just one in its first 12. Righthander A.J. Burnett, 4-0 with a 2.33 ERA in four career starts on 3 days' rest, had allowed just one run on four hits, striking out nine, while pitching the Yankees to a 3-1 victory in Game 2. And the Phillies' lineup had just four hits in 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position since its 6-1 victory in Game 1.