We come to celebrate the Fightin's, who finally, gallantly, succumbed last night to the Evil Empire. We come . . .

Oops.

Hold it right there, Pilgrim.

Reports of the demise of the major-league baseball franchise of Philadelphia are grievously premature.

The Fightin's live.

Pass it on.

Call what the Phillies have bounceability. It's the second cousin of resiliency.

They were presumed to be roadkill after the Yankees had beaten them three straight and taken a 3-1 stranglehold in the World Series. Last night was going to be the crash landing of the magic carpet.

Enter bounceability.

Enter, also, Chase Utley, whose at-bats go something like this: "Mission Control, New York here. We have a problem."

The Fightin's live. Pass it on.

They came wobbling in on bald tires last night, but they have given themselves one more tomorrow.

It's only a temporary reprieve, but it beats the alternative.

An elimination game is supposed to be boiling with passion and this one was, from the start. The Phillies led with their savior, whom many inquisitors had wanted to start in Game 4, meaning one day less of rest. Manager Charlie Manuel was not swayed.

The Yankees promptly dented Lee for a run on Johnny Damon's first inning parachute single into center field and Alex Rodriguez's RBI double, on an inside-out swing, into the right field corner, the ball skittering away like a rabbit hunting for its hole.

One run? That's, oh say, about 15 innings worth of Cliff Lee pitches.

But the Fightin's, feeding on desperation, leaped on Yankees starter A.J. Burnett. Jimmy Rollins - "We've done it before, win three in a row" - lashed a first-pitch single, and that was significant because the last time the Phillies faced Burnett, they had allowed him to get away with first-pitch fastballs, and never seemed to adjust.

Burnett drilled Shane Victorino on the knuckles and your first thought was that it was retaliation for the triple plunking of Rodriguez during this series. But Victorino was trying to bunt and Burnett followed the rule - throw at the bunter.

Which brought up Chase Utley in a situation that has haunted the Fightin's during this series - runners on, but they get left there. You have too many LOB, eventually you'll be DOA.

"We haven't been getting the big hit," Victorino had said.

Well, no more.

Utley put that phone-booth swing of his on the first pitch to him and clubbed it into the right field seats, thereby demonstrating the worth of the old Earl Weaver theory of managing the three-run homer.

And then his next time up, Utley, who is an instinctive and intelligent baserunner, played small ball. He stole second (he almost never gets caught stealing) and then dashed home on Jayson Werth's hit. Raul Ibanez followed with a two-men-on RBI single, and at last the Phillies were cashing in on all those runners-in-scoring-position opportunities they had been squandering.

That was enough for manager Joe Girardi. He hooked Burnett, who had paralyzed the Phillies in Game 2. This time around, however, the Fightin's employed what they had learned about sitting on Burnett's first-pitch strike-one.

After three innings, the Phillies had gifted Lee with half a dozen runs. That, you thought, should be ample support, assuming he had his A game. Or even his B game. The cushion enabled him to operate with a wider margin for error.

There is, by his own analysis, no smoke and mirrors about Lee. Heat. Change. And a menacing sounding thing called a spike curveball. He works both sides of the plate. And, to the everlasting appreciation of his mates and spectators, he does not tarry in between pitches. Opponents spend a game, usually in vain, trying to disrupt his rhythm, nudge him out of his groove, try his patience.

He lasted seven full, then left after allowing five runs. He spoiled us - we began expecting shutouts every time he took the ball.

Chan Ho Park worked a perfect eighth. And for the crucial ninth, the inning that has bedeviled the Fightin's at too many turns, the bullpen door opened to reveal . . . Ryan Madson, who has electric stuff but at times has suffered lapses.

The air was thick with trepidation. Sure enough, first batter, double off the left-center wall. Next batter, single. Next batter, Derek Jeter, 6-4-3 double play, but a run-scoring double play, making it 8-6.

Next batter, single. Next batter, power man Mark Teixeira, representing the tying run. Strikeout.

The Fightin's live. Pass it on.