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Inside the Game: Now is the time for a 3-game win streak

The Phillies had 12 winning streaks of three or more games this season. Do they have one more in them?

Ryan Howard has only three hits in 17 at-bats so far in the World Series. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
Ryan Howard has only three hits in 17 at-bats so far in the World Series. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)Read more

The Phillies had 12 winning streaks of three or more games this season.

Do they have one more in them?

That's what they need to win the World Series after losing Game 4 in excruciating fashion last night.

The Phils fell behind, three games to one, in the Series after the New York Yankees rallied for three runs against Brad Lidge in the top of the ninth to take a 7-4 win.

One slipup and the Phillies season is over.

Or should we say one more slipup?

In a lot of ways, they gave this game away with missed scoring opportunities and a defensive blunder in the ninth inning.

Cliff Lee tries to save the Phils' season tonight when he pitches against A.J. Burnett in the last game of the year at Citizens Bank Park.

While we wait for Game 5, let's take a look back at some of the key moments in Game 4:

Damon steals a win

The Phils got home runs from Chase Utley and Pedro Feliz in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, in tying the game at 4-4.

Manager Charlie Manuel went to his closer, Lidge, in the top of the ninth. Lidge got two quick outs before his mostly nightmarish season reached a low point.

Facing Johnny Damon, Lidge got ahead in the count, 1-2. He nearly struck out Damon on a slider, but a foul tip kept the at-bat alive.

Lidge then threw five straight fastballs: Ball, ball, foul ball, foul ball, as Damon delivered a single to left.

With Mark Teixeira up, the Phillies shifted their infield toward right field, Teixeira's pull side. Damon stole second. Third baseman Feliz, stationed at shortstop for the shift, took the throw. As Damon reached second, he noticed that no one was covering third and alertly kept going.

"A great, instinctual play after a great at-bat by Johnny Damon," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

"I was trying to be aggressive and get into scoring position, and it worked," Damon said.

Lidge, who should have covered third, unraveled after that. He hit Teixeira before Alex Rodriguez put the Yanks ahead with a double. Jorge Posada then padded the lead with a two-run single.

It was a you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it inning.

There were a lot of reasons the Phils lost this one. But in the end, Damon stole it.

My bad

Shortstop Jimmy Rollins took the blame for Lidge not covering third on Damon's steal in the ninth.

"I take responsibility for it," Rollins said. "I make sure the pitcher knows that on a steal he has to cover third. At that time, I didn't really mention anything to Brad, so when he made the pitch, in his mind it was just a regular steal. But with the way the defense is set up, it's my job he makes sure he knows to go to third. I'm the captain of the infield. That's my job. I did it before when Chan Ho [Park] was pitching, and I just didn't do it that time."

Chipping away

The Phils entered the bottom of the seventh inning down, 4-2, and it just felt like now-or-never time for them.

They had the top of the order coming up.

CC Sabathia's gas gauge was nearing empty as he sat at 95 pitches.

The Phils hit some balls hard off Sabathia, but they couldn't come all the way back.

Rollins smoked a hard ground ball at third baseman Rodriguez. One out.

Shane Victorino lined out to right field. Two outs.

Sabathia hung a slider, his 107th pitch, to Ultey, and the Phils' No. 3 hitter belted it out to right, cutting the Yankees' lead to one.

The home run brought the big crowd alive as Ryan Howard came to the plate and Sabathia was replaced with a fresh arm, lefty Damaso Marte.

Marte showed no fear. He got ahead of Howard with two strikes then got the Phils' slugger to fly out to left field.

With Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera in the Yankees' bullpen, that just felt like it for the Phils.

Feliz thought otherwise. He gave the Phils life with a two-out homer against Chamberlain that went for naught.

The big man runneth

Under the tutelage of first-base coach/base-running guru Davey Lopes, the Phillies have led the majors in stolen base percentage the last three seasons, including the best in major-league history (87.9 percent) in 2007.

Lopes helped Victorino realize his base-stealing potential. He has also encouraged Howard to swipe bags when the opposing pitcher doesn't pay him enough heed.

Lopes clocks the pitcher's delivery to the plate and if he believes the baserunner can steal the bag, he flashes a green light sign.

Howard, who was 8 for 9 in stolen-base attempts during the regular season, led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and swiped second with Jayson Werth at the plate. The steal did not even draw a throw. Getting into scoring position proved important because Howard was able to score on a two-out single to left by Feliz.

The hard-hit ball got on leftfielder Damon in a hurry, but Damon has a poor arm, so Howard never hesitated around third. He went shoulder-first into catcher Posada, tying the game at 2-2.

Replays showed that Howard actually missed the plate as he lunged into Posada. Only when Sabathia picked up the loose ball and threw to second did umpire Mike Everitt flash the safe sign.

Yanks answer back

The game did not stay tied at 2-2 very long. Phils starter Joe Blanton, who had retired 11 straight after plunking Rodriguez with a pitch in the first inning, walked Nick Swisher on four pitches to open the fifth.

That hurt.

Melky Cabrera followed with a single before one-out singles by Derek Jeter and Damon put the Yanks up, 4-2. Blanton settled down and retired the dangerous duo of Teixeira and Rodriguez to end the uprising.

Sabathia at his best

After his team gave him a two-run lead in the top of the fifth, Sabathia did some of his best pitching of the night in the bottom of the inning. Rollins (single) and Victorino (walk) both reached base with the heart of the order - Utley, Howard and Werth - due up.

Sabathia went to his favorite pitch against lefties - the slider - in getting Utley and Howard to pop out to shortstop. Utley saw four pitches in the at-bat. Three were sliders. Howard saw two. Both were sliders.

With two outs, Sabathia turned his attention to righthanded hitting Werth, who has been pounding fastballs all postseason. With that in mind, Sabathia threw Werth seven pitches. Just one was a fastball. One was a slider. The rest were change-ups, including the 2-2 pitch on which Werth struck out.

Sabathia's massive size and mid-90s fastball says power pitcher, but the guy has a terrific change-up, as the Phils saw last night.

Missed opportunities

The Phils left two runners on base in the first, fourth and fifth. They left a runner on second in the sixth.

The Phils scored a run in the first on back-to-back doubles by Victorino and Utley but got nothing else as Sabathia struck out Howard (six of the eight pitches Howard saw were sliders) and Ibanez to end the inning. Sabathia also got Ibanez on a slider. Ibanez came to the plate after Sabathia walked Werth intentionally. Werth hit two home runs in Game 3 and the Yanks weren't about to get beat by him. They took their chances on Ibanez and it paid off.