I know this has been said before, but one play in last night’s game was so important that it bears repeating: Johnny Damon’s steal of second and third base with two outs in the ninth inning.

First, let’s go over, really simply, how he did it.

Damon stealing second itself is not that earth shattering, though to do so with two outs in the ninth inning of a tied game on the road involves some risk that should not be overlooked.

The key part of the play, however, is that the Phillies–just like the Twins and the Angels–picked a bad time to forget their fundamentals.

If you want to shift for Teixeira, that’s all well in good–but when you do so, either the pitcher or the catcher is supposed to cover third base. Simple, right?

Well, no one on the Phillies was able to remember this one, simple thing, so third base remained unconvered. Damon saw it, and Damon went. As Damon would later say (via the fine folks at LoHud):

“I think what I had to see before I could start running to third base was how Pedro (Feliz) caught the ball,” Damon said. “So I knew it drug him off some. I’m just glad that when I started running, I still had some of my young legs behind me… You know, it worked out, because I felt like being on third base, it possibly takes away a slider, a tough slider in the dirt that I may be able to score on. Alex got two fastballs. Hopefully it, well, it did work out for us.”

Since the play occurred so fast–not more than nine seconds–one has to imagine that it was something that was based more on gut than something overly-thought-out, perhaps a nice contrast to Girardi’s conservative risk-safe managerial style.

Here’s how important the play is:

Imagine Damon steals second, but not third base.

The entire way Lidge pitches to Teixeira changes. There are still breaking balls in the dirt, pitches that Teixeira might very well swing-and-miss on–and could send the game to extra innings.

Imagine the game goes into extra innings. Girardi plays it conservative, pitching Coke when he should probably be pitching Mo as the top of Philadelphia’s lineup is due to come up. Coke’s a decent enough bullpen guy during the season, but he has been known to give up the occasional home run.

Now imagine him pitching to Victorino and Utley and Howard. Not a pleasant thought–though,here I must admit that the one Philadelphia bat that scares me more than any is Werth. Anyway.

The thing with extra innings on the road, as we saw in Anaheim, is that it’s incredibly hard to win because if the other team scores even just one run the game is over.

At home, the Yankees are in their element in extra innings, but that is because they are home.

Extra innings on the road does not definitely mean the Phillies win, but it certainly increases their chances.

If they win, the series is tied at two games apiece and all of a sudden we have a best-of-three set, and the Yankees have to face Cliff Lee in game one.

The possibility of going back to New York down 3-2 is not one that would make any Yankee fan happy, even with Pettitte and Sabathia on the bump for games six and seven.

As it is, though, third base was stolen.

Third base was stolen, taking away any pitch in the dirt. Teixeira was hit and A-Rod’s double scored Damon. With Rivera looming–in games 3 and 4 he’s thrown 13 pitches combined–one run would very possibly have been enough, but just for good measure Posada got the Yankees two more, and the Yankees pushed the Phillies to the brink.

All because Johnny Damon had the foresight to take a base no one was covering and, once again, the Yankees took advantage of poor fundamentals from the other team.

After all, Johnny Damon, the former Red Sox, should know how important a stolen base can be.