Phillies Go Deep, Force Game 6

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Phillies listened to different music, joked in the clubhouse and showed the New York Yankees they were having too much fun to go home.

The Phillies knocked off the Yankees 8-6 Monday, forcing Game 6 on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. The Phillies may be down 3-2, but as they demonstrated in Game 5, that is no reason to get stressed.

"I don't think this team knows how to be nervous or tense," Phillies reliever Scott Eyre said. "We changed up the music, a little less Jay-Z. Played pregame Wiffle Ball, at least that's what it felt like. I think it was the most relaxed we've been all year."

The Phillies, behind second baseman Chase Utley's two home runs and four RBI, gave the Yankees plenty to worry about on their bus ride home to New York. They scored three runs on the first eight pitches from starter A.J. Burnett and had a 6-1 lead by the third inning. It appeared to be plenty for ace Cliff Lee, 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA this postseason, until the Yankees knocked him out in the eighth and threatened in the ninth.

The Yankees, down 8-5 with three outs remaining, had two runners on with no outs and Derek Jeter at the plate. Phillies reliever Ryan Madson, summoned instead of closer Brad Lidge, induced a double-play grounder. Johnny Damon singled, but Mark Teixeira struck out to end the game.

Manager Charlie Manuel planned to talk with his Phillies and make sure no one was nervous about playing the team's first elimination game since 2007. Yet all he had to do was look around the clubhouse. "Same attitude," first baseman Ryan Howard said. "There's no reason to change."

The Phillies, who forced the first World Series Game 6 in six years, hope Utley doesn't change. He has five homers in this series, tying Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson's World Series record set in 1977. (c) Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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