Damon steals victory for Yanks over Phils

November 2, 12:39 PMBoston Baseball ExaminerSteve Weissman

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Taking a page from the 2004 Red Sox postseason playbook, New York Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon stole a critical base (two, actually) last night that lifted his teammates to a 7-4 victory in last night’s World Series Game Four against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Performing his best Dave Roberts impression, Damon rather conventionally swiped second base at a key moment in the game – two outs, top of the ninth, tie score – and then took third when he alertly noticed no one was covering the bag. This set the stage for what proved to be the game-winning hit by Alex Rodriguez, who’s double drove Damon home.

Damon’s heroics followed an epic nine-pitch at bat against Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge, off of whom he ultimately singled before writing a new entry in the Idiot’s Guide to Intelligent Baserunning. His tenacity at the plate and instinctive read on the bases instantly gave him the same folk hero status in New York that he has in Boston – not an easy double play to pull off – and no doubt boosted the market value of this free-agent to be.

In the immortal words of long-time Boston sportscaster Bob Lobel, “why can’t we get guys like that?”