Sweet victory could be marred if Girardi's trick fails to be a treat

PHILADELPHIA

Philly has always been the sports town made famous by one sound: "Boo!" On this Halloween, the Phillies and a crowd of 46,061, some in ghoulish costumes, tried to give a "Boo!" of a different kind to the New York Yankees -- the kind a flurry of early-inning runs that scares the heart out of a World Series team.

Instead, the Yankees showed why their pinstripe uniforms have always been the most frightening sight in baseball for almost a century. They reacted to a 3-0 deficit the way the best Yankees teams always have -- by not reacting at all, by persevering and by grinding out an 8-5 win that left the whole Bronx crew in an ebullient mood all night long.

Long after midnight, when this rain-delayed win had finally given them a 2-1 series lead, the Bombers could hardly decide whom to praise most. Was it Alex Rodriguez who got the Yanks on the board with his first World Series home run, a two-run shot that benefited from an instant-replay review? Now, his '09 postseason résumé includes six homers and 14 RBI.

"Well, it's only fitting. But I don't know if that [counts as] controversy with the replay," said Lightning-Rod of his fly into the right field corner that struck a camera just above the right field fence. In that case, "above" means home run.

The Yanks also had kind words for their other home run men, Nick Swisher, who had slumped so badly that he was benched in Game 2, and pinch hitter Hideki Matsui, who homered for the second straight game, even though he was, in effect, benched by the absence of the designated hitter here in a National League park.

However, when all the praise of the night was added up, as well as some opprobrium for Phillies' southpaw Cole Hamels, who imploded quickly and was knocked out in fifth inning, the greatest credit went to Andy Pettitte who won his 17th postseason game, extending his own record which he set last week. Perhaps, when Hamels, 25, is as old as Pettitte, 37, he will adapt to bad nights, lousy command and a scary deficit with the poise of Pettitte.

"I can't remember winning a game [in the postseason] where I struggled like I did tonight," said Pettitte, whose own miscommunication on a simple second-inning bunt by Hamels helped the Phils score three runs in that inning, not two. "They had me up against the ropes. I knew after the first inning that the ball wasn't going where I wanted. I couldn't get my curveball over. I didn't feel locked in, like I have the whole postseason."

So, when baseball plays tricks, how do you turn it into a treat? Pettitte focused on the Phillies' excess of lefty hitters and found one pitch that was working -- a cut fastball away -- and used it to hang an 0-for-9 on Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Raúl Ibáñez. Also, his own first-pitch RBI hump-back single to center field drove in the tying run against Hamels in the fifth and seemed to make him -- what is the technical term -- oh, quit.

Pettitte even scored the Yanks' go-ahead run later in the inning on Johnny Damon's two-run double to center. "I got no wheels at all," said Pettitte. "I barely beat [Derek] Jeter to home plate (who started a base behind him). I was gassed all night. Gassed running the bases, covering first."

Yet he lasted six homely victorious innings, despite four runs, two on solo homers by Jayson Werth. "Bulldog," said Swisher.

Not a bulldog was Hamels, the hurling hero of Philadelphia's 2008 title run. He was in the zone last October and reveled in it. Now, the game is a bit of a mystery and misery to him. His fastball won't go quite where he wants. So that makes his changeup a less effective contrast. And his curve has never been as sharp as his coaches wanted. Ergo: problems.