"Two thumbs up - no fracture," Victorino said of taking a fastball in the hand from A.J. Burnett in the first inning, putting Victorino on first base for Chase Utley's home run.

All that helped the Phillies jump out quickly, but eventually turned into a major World Series Game 5 plot development as the Phillies survived that harrowing late threat from the Yankees for an 8-6 Game 5 victory.

In the first, Victorino had squared trying to bunt Jimmy Rollins over when a 95-m.p.h. Burnett fastball, headed for Victorino's chest, hit him. In the bottom of the third inning, as the Phillies were knocking Burnett out of the game, Victorino headed for the clubhouse, for an X-ray.

"Shane got hit on the finger," said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who also said it was not broken. "As the game went on, the finger kept swelling. It was bruised. And it started getting bigger. He couldn't grip the ball, and he also couldn't grip the bat." It remained very swollen after the game.

"You taking me out?" Victorino, wearing a microphone for the telecast, asked Manuel. He then offered another suggestion: "Put me in left."

Later, Victorino said there had been "miscommunication" and a "mix-up" about whether he could continue. He wasn't upset afterward, but said, "I wanted to play. . . . I didn't want to be on the bench."

Victorino said the finger got "stiffer as the game went on. Throwing was fine," he said. "Hitting was a little tough."

Ben Francisco typically would have gone in as a defensive replacement for leftfielder Raul Ibanez, who stayed in the game and couldn't quite get to an eighth-inning ball off the bat of Alex Rodriguez. When it went off Ibanez's glove, two runs scored, sending Cliff Lee out of the game.

Victorino talked before the game because at the World Series, each team is obligated to provide a player for a mass interview. Usually, it's the next day's pitcher. Since there is no game today, Victorino agreed to do it. That's good news for the media since Victorino isn't the type to evade questions.

A producer for Comcast SportsNet asked Victorino if he'd heard that former Phillies manager Larry Bowa said on a Philadelphia radio station that he believed one of the reasons the Yankees were having so many mound conferences was because the Phillies have a reputation for stealing signs.

"There's rumors going around that when you play the Phillies, there's a camera somewhere or bullpen people are giving signs," Bowa told ESPN-AM (950) yesterday. "And catchers are constantly changing signs. That's the rumor. Now, is it proven? No."

Since Bowa coaches third for the Los Angeles Dodgers - just taken out by the Phillies in the NLCS - Victorino did indeed have a response when he was asked for one.

"For Bowa to come out and say something like that if he doesn't know what he's talking about - if he doesn't have cold, hard facts - he shouldn't say something like that," Victorino said.

"I don't want to use the word I'm going to use, but it's just not something that should be said. . . . That's just weak, I guess." Victorino also said, "Obviously, if we're stealing signs, we would be doing better than what we're doing right now."

Maybe if Bowa wasn't a Dodgers coach, Victorino wouldn't have cared.

"From what I got out of the quote, we're not doing well in the World Series because we're not stealing signs," Victorino said at the beginning of his long night. "We're too good a team for you to say that's the reason why we're struggling."