Alex Rodriguez, right, and Mark Texeira of the New York Yankees celebrate after Rodriguez crossed the plate in the ninth as both scored on a hit by Jorge Posada. (Reuters)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Alex Rodriguez hit a go-ahead, two-out double in the ninth inning off Brad Lidge and the New York Yankees took advantage of Johnny Damon's alert dash to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4 on Sunday night for a 3-1 lead in the World Series.

Derek Jeter delivered all game and Mariano Rivera closed it out as the Yankees moved within one win of their 27th championship, and first since 2000.

Rodriguez could really savor this victory – seething after again being hit by a pitch, he struck back with his bat.

The Yankees will try to clinch it Monday night when A.J. Burnett faces October ace Cliff Lee.

``Facing Brad Lidge, he's a great competitor. He's had a lot of success here. Just trying to make contact there,'' Rodriguez said.

Chase Utley and Pedro Feliz hit late home runs for the Phillies that tied it at 4. Then it moved to the ninth and Phils brought in Lidge – a postseason star last year, he had struggled all season before regaining his touch this October.

But November was not so kind to him.

Lidge had been the only closer in the playoffs who hadn't allowed a run until the Yankees tagged him. With two outs, Damon capped a nine-pitch at-bat with a single. The Phillies overshifted their infield to the right side for Mark Teixeira and Damon took off.

Damon beat the one-hop throw to steal second, popped up from his slide and noticed no one was covering third. That's because Feliz had handled the throw, and Damon easily beat the third baseman to the bag for a rare double-steal?

Rattled or whatever, Lidge hit Teixeira with a pitch. So up stepped Rodriguez, 1 for 13 to that point in his first World Series and looking nothing like the feared slugger he was earlier in these playoffs.

Putting all his past postseason failures behind, Rodriguez lined a solid double into the left-field corner for a 5-4 lead.

The crowd was silent when Jorge Posada followed with a two-run single. And just like that, the Yankees were on the verge of celebrating and the defending champion Phillies were on the brink of losing the series.

Feliz rocked Yankees setup man Joba Chamberlain with a two-out, solo home run in the eighth that tied it at 4.