Rattler Alumni Report: 2009 World Series Game Four

Yankees 7 @Phillies 4

Yankees:
Alex Rodriguez (Foxes, '94): 1-for-4, RUN, 2B, RBI
Damaso Marte ('96): .1IP, 0H, 0R

Philadelphia:
Raul Ibanez (Foxes, 94): 0-for-4, 3K

A-Rod puts Yanks a win away

The Yankees are nine innings away from returning to a place Derek Jeter and others firmly believe a season is a failure if they don’t.

Tonight at Citizens Bank Park, a gem of a baseball stadium, the Yankees will attempt to win their 27th World Series title and first since 2000 against the defending champion Phillies.

Thanks to a gutsy effort by CC Sabathia on short rest and enough production from a lineup that produced two runs in the first and fifth innings and three in the ninth, the Yankees won Game 4, 7-4, last night in front of 46,145.

That's odd...the headline makes it seem as if A-Rod is the guy...But, the story doesn't mention him until....Paragraph...Let's see...copy 1...copy 2...copy 3...skip 4...skip 5...6!

Lidge then hit Teixeira with a pitch and gave up an RBI double to Alex Rodriguez that put the Yankees on top 5-4. Jorge Posada followed with a two-run single to left-center that provided Mariano Rivera with a three-run bulge to work the ninth. Rivera recorded his 39th postseason save by getting the final three outs.

Surely, someone can right this. Oh, I was getting worried. This fall, this team, is A-Rod's

It had to boil down to this, didn't it? That's always been Alex Rodriguez's rarest gift, the way the moment seeks him out, stalks him, finds him.

That hasn't always been a good thing, but those moments all seem another lifetime ago. In these playoffs, there is nobody better equipped to seize them.

And nobody the Yankees would rather see stepping to home plate.

"He's the reason why we're sitting here and in Philadelphia right now," Johnny Damon would say later, after everyone could start breathing again. "Without him, who knows where our road may have stopped? He's been huge."

Game Five is tonight.