Phils' new approach to Burnett works, forces Game 6

PHILADELPHIA -- Yes, Chase Utley blasted another home run as the Philadelphia Phillies refused to go quietly into that good night. Hey, this is 2009. What's a World Series game without an Utley homer? A Grapefruit League game, apparently.

But you want to know why -- besides Sir Utley (all bow heads now in reverence) -- the Phillies blistered the Yankees 8-6 to send this World Series back up the train tracks toward New York? Because they took their approach against Yankees starter A.J. Burnett from Game 2 and, facing elimination in Game 5, ran it through the shredder.

"We figured in Game 2, the pressure would be on him having to go out and win," Phillies hitting coach Milt Thompson said following his team's 8-6 triumph Monday night, during which, if you listened closely, you'd swear you heard the soaring theme from Rocky in the background. "So we were taking pitches. He established that he was throwing first-pitch strikes, and then his curve was working. ...

"Today, we couldn't afford to lose another game. We came out aggressive."

Matter of fact, you might say that, for Burnett, Game 5 was like being on the business end of a whipped cream pie to the face.

You know that story. Burnett started a new Yankees tradition earlier this summer, sneaking up from behind and crushing a pile of whipped cream into the face of a heroic teammate during a postgame television interview. The fans absolutely swooned for it. And who could blame them? Look! The Yankees like to have fun just like real human beings!

The $82.5 million pitcher who was so sharp in Game 2 was incredibly not sharp pitching on three days' rest for the first time all season Monday. He was clocked for three runs in his first eight pitches. The Phillies scored six runs before Burnett had obtained one out in the third inning.

At one point with Burnett on the mound, the count stood at six outs and nine Phillies baserunners.

What knocked him so badly off balance?

Don't tell me it was pitching on short rest. While Burnett hadn't done it this year, he had done it three times in his career and was 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA on those occasions. Sure, it would have been nice if the Yankees actually had a living, breathing fourth starter so they didn't have to disturb Burnett's routine. But what do you want for a $200 million team? Perfection?

No, the difference was a complete reversal of the Phillies approach.

Four days earlier, Burnett had thrown first-pitch strikes to the first 11 Phillies he faced in Yankee Stadium. Eight of those were called strikes as the Phillies awaited an unraveling that never came.

Facing elimination Monday, three of the first four Phillies swung hard at the first pitch they saw from Burnett. And the only reason it wasn't 4 for 4 is because Shane Victorino took a first-pitch fastball off of the knuckle on his right index finger.

Within those first four plate appearances: Jimmy Rollins cracked a hard single, and Sir Utley (all genuflect) crushed a three-run homer. Victorino was hit with the pitch before Sir Utley (all sing hosannas) swung Wonderboy to bash the homer, and Ryan Howard walked just afterward

It was the most consecutive batters to reach base safely at the start of a World Series game since Game 2 in 2002 when the Angels' David Eckstein, Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson collected four consecutive hits.

"You have to have a game plan going in," Rollins said. "The first time we faced him, we were looking for the wild A.J. That sets you up for failure because you're looking for him to fail. You're not looking for yourself to succeed.

"When we faced him in May [a 7-3 Phillies win on May 22 in which Burnett was the losing pitcher], we attacked. It stopped him from getting in a groove.

"If you don't let a guy get in a groove, he doesn't know what he has that night."

Thanks to the Broad St. Bullies (where have we heard that one before?), Burnett never figured out what he had. He never knew what hit him.

He said the difference was that he didn't throw first-pitch strikes. But according to the charts, he did so to five of seven hitters he faced in the first inning.

What did him in was a Phillies team that did not sit back like it did in New York the other night, and some fastballs that simply weren't in, to slip into baseball vernacular, "bastard" locations. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, dissecting the Game 2 Burnett behind the batting cage the other day, said he didn't necessarily have a problem with the approach of his hitters then because Burnett was throwing so many fastballs on the black -- the corners of the plate -- that were hard to handle.

Let's just say, following Game 5, the manager who declared this week that this Phillies lineup should be scoring six, seven, eight runs a game was smiling big.

The Phillies' first three batters score on Chase Utley's homer. (US Presswire)

It was the smartest game the Phillies have played so far. It almost made up for them leaving third base uncovered while Johnny Damon ran wild in the ninth inning of Game 4. Almost.

Perhaps over the next two games, they can completely make up for it. Say one thing for these Phillies: Even facing sudden death Monday, they were looser than the rules at a fraternity house.

They changed their music in the clubhouse, scrapping hip hop master -- and noted New Yorker -- Jay-Z for, well. ...

"I don't know the names of the songs," reported reliever Scott Eyre. "I listen to country."

To emphasize his point that this is one relaxed team, Eyre also noted that the Phillies played a rollicking session of Wiffle Ball in the clubhouse before Game 5.

Come again?

"Not really," Eyre admitted, grinning. "But that's what it felt like."

Armed with that bit of goofiness, the Phillies went on the attack.

While Burnett wound up throwing first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 26 hitters he faced in Game 2, he lasted just 15 hitters Monday before Joe Girardi had to open the doors to a Yankees bullpen that has the tendency to take on water quickly (see Coke, Phil, who threw as many home run balls in the seventh inning as the number of outs he obtained: Two).

"His command wasn't there like it was the first time we saw him," Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth said. "We saw that his velocity was there."

"He just lacked command tonight ... he just wasn't able to get it going," Girardi said.

And because of that, the Yankees, though still in great shape, don't retain quite the command on this World Series as they did a couple of days ago.

This is the first time this particular band of Phillies has been trailing in a postseason series in two years, so we're not quite sure what to expect.

But here's a hint: Remember, this is the city of that down-and-out underdog Rocky Balboa.

"Everybody remembers Rocky," Rollins said. "Rocky's definitely a Philadelphia story, so we're part of it."

"If we win Games 6 and 7, I will run up those steps," said Eyre, referring to the famous movie scene in which Rocky trains on the steps leading up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "And I don't even know where they are."