Joe Girardi

Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez provided the heroics for the Yankees in their 8-5 win Sunday night in Game Four of the 2009 World Series, but when there are heroes in the game of baseball, there also must be goats.

Unlike other sports, baseball is mostly a zero sum game.

For the second time in the history of Major League Baseball, the World Series was being played in November.

After an exciting Game Three that saw the bats come alive, the Yankees were facing the Phillies in Game Four of the 2009 World Series.

Coming into the game, the Phillies fans were excited and some were present earlier in the day to watch the Philadelphia Eagles rip apart the New York Giants just across the street at Lincoln Financial Field, so for some of the fans at Citizens Bank Park, it was going to be a long night, but one filled with excitement and drama.

With Johnny Damon down 1-2 in the count against Brad Lidge with two outs in the ninth, things were beginning to look very iffy for the Yankees' chances of winning their 27th World Series.

After Joba Chamberlain surrendered a game-tying home run to Pedro Feliz in the bottom of the eighth, the Phillies carried all the momentum into the ninth.

With Philadelphia's ace, Cliff Lee, scheduled to start Game 5 on Monday against A.J. Burnett on just three days' rest, a win on Sunday would've put the National League champs in control of this series.

In the 8th inning of last night's New York Yankee victory, manager Joe Girardi summoned left handed reliever Damaso Marte to begin the frame. At the time, the Yankees led 8-4, so the game was still within reach of Philadelphia, especially with the middle, power-part of the Phillies hitters due up.

It was a good move by Girardi (one of many he has made this post season), getting the lefty Marte to face Phillies slugger Ryan Howard leading off the inning.

He was dominant in game one at Yankee Stadium, shutting down the vaunted New York Yankee lineup in a complete game victory. In going the distance, Cliff Lee struck out 10 hitters (including Alex Rodriguez three times), allowing only six hits and a single unearned run.

He is in his prime and is basically a win waiting to happen every time he takes the mound. The best bet for Philadelphia in winning this World Series is to have Lee pitch as often as he can.

The strategy when facing Pedro Martinez is always to just wait him out, get his pitch count up, then pounce on the relievers who take over for him in the seventh inning.

In the fourth, everything appeared to be going as planned, as Mark Teixeira's homer tied the game and the Yankees started getting better swings against the future Hall of Famer.

An in-his-prime Cy Young Award winning pitcher was making the start in Game One of the World Series on the hill at Yankee Stadium (one of the few stadiums left that does not receive money for naming rights). He completely dominates the Bronx Bombers power laden lineup, and out dueled the Yankees ace left handed pitcher.

Well...that was fast. My night of celebration ended about 15 minutes after I posted the last piece . Immediately, my mind started to shift to the new question at hand.

How do the Yankees beat the Phillies this week?

Here's the game plan, in three(-ish) parts:

1. Use the Long Lineup to Tire Out Cliff Lee and the Philly Starters Early. Then, Go to Work on the Bullpen.

Before Game 6 of the American League Championship Series was postponed just after 6 pm ET on Saturday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had said that in the event of a rain out, scheduled starter Andy Pettitte would still start if the game was pushed back a day and CC Sabathia would start a possible Game 7 on Monday.

While Pettitte is a veteran pitcher capable of closing out the ALCS for the Yanks, starting Sabathia on Sunday would be a better choice for two reasons.

The 2009 New York Yankees came into the regular season with a lot of hope and promise. They splurged big time in their off-season by signing ace CC Sabathia, another ace in A.J. Burnett, and slugging first basemen Mark Teixeira.

This was beginning to look like the most talented lineup and pitching staff that the Yankees have ever put out on the field. And, indeed it has been.