PHILADELPHIA — As major league baseball took its first scheduled foray into November on Sunday night, New York Yankees left fielder Johnny Damon did something in the ninth inning that probably never had been done in the World Series before.

And Alex Rodriguez did what he has been paid handsomely to do for several years by the Yankees but rarely had done in October — or November — until this postseason.

Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge, working for the first time in 11 days, faced Damon in the ninth inning of Game 4, which was tied at 4. Damon, after falling behind 1-2, worked a nine-pitch at-bat with two out and singled.

With the Phillies heavily overshifted toward right for Mark Teixeira, Damon stole second and, after third baseman Pedro Feliz, the closest infielder to second, had fielded a one-hop throw from catcher Carlos Ruiz, Damon took off for third. The base was uncovered because Feliz was at second and Lidge and Ruiz were spectating. Damon, with the slower Feliz giving futile chase, was awarded two stolen bases on the play.

"The catcher and pitcher have to be heads-up," Phils manager Charlie Manuel said. "Evidently, there was some miscommunication there."

Perhaps rattled, Lidge, who was 48 for 48 in save opportunities last year but blew 11 this year, hit Teixeira and then allowed a go-ahead double by Rodriguez, who has 15 runs batted in this postseason. A subsequent two-run single off Lidge by Jorge Posada gave the Yankees a 7-4 win for a 3-1 lead in the Series, just one triumph away from their first world title in nine years.

Rodriguez had driven in only one run, on a bases-empty homer, in 44 at-bats in the last three playoffs in which he had appeared for the Yankees before this season. And he had struck out six times in his first eight at-bats in this World Series.

"There's no question I have never had a bigger hit," Rodriguez said of his go-ahead double.

"I think I made an adjustment after the first two games. I was expanding the strike zone," said Rodriguez, who was hit by pitches three times in the last two nights, including twice in the back.

Rodriguez, at first, said he wouldn't comment on being a pin cushion but later he said of being hit the first of two times on Saturday, "It kind of woke me up a little bit and just reminded me, 'Hey, this is the World Series. Let's get it going a little bit.'"

But Rodriguez's heroics Sunday were set up by Damon — a fact Rodriguez and manager Joe Girardi were quick to point out — first for Damon hanging in with Lidge and then for his baserunning exploits. "A great instinctual play by Johnny Damon," Girardi said. "You'd better be sure because you've got (Teixeira and Rodriguez) coming up."

Damon said, "What I had to see before I could start running to third base was how Pedro caught the ball. I knew it dragged him off (the base) some.

"I know that I still have decent speed left in the tank. I know Pedro's speed also. I mean, if it was (the Los Angeles Angels') Chone Figgins, that might have been tough."

Feliz's lack of speed was his only negative of the night. He played a strong game defensively and also turned around a Joba Chamberlain fastball to tie the game at 4-4 in the eighth after Chamberlain had blown away the first two hitters.

For the Yankees to clinch the Series tonight at Citizens Bank Park, they will have to beat Phillies ace Cliff Lee, who handled them easily in Game 1.

Game 4 wasn't the first World Series game played in November but it was the first one that was supposed to be. There were several Series games played in November in 2001 after the season had been halted for nearly a week by terrorist attacks.

Yankees starter CC Sabathia, who gave up three runs in 6 2/3 innings, including Chase Utley's third homer off him in two games, was working on three days' rest for the second time this postseason.

Phillies righthander Joe Blanton was pitching on what anybody would consider way too much rest. Twelve days had passed since Blanton's last starting assignment, Oct. 19.

Though Blanton worked a reasonably strong six innings, perhaps the rust showed in the first inning when the Yankees scored two runs and the first umpires' warning of the Series was issued to both sides after Rodriguez had been hit in the back by a Blanton fastball.

Sabathia allowed a run-scoring double by Utley in the Phillies' first — Utley has knocked in four runs with four hits against Sabathia in two games.

In the fourth, a broken-bat hit by Ryan Howard, an unmolested theft of second by Howard and a single in front of left fielder Damon by Feliz tied the score — even if Howard might have slid over the plate while not actually touching it.

The Yankees parlayed a leadoff, four-pitch walk to Nick Swisher and a couple of scratch hits into two runs in the fifth against Blanton. The defending world champion Phillies eventually would catch up on the Utley and Feliz homers. But now they're running out of time. "Tonight, I won't say anything," Manuel said after Sunday's game. "I may say something (today)."