PHILADELPHIA -- The leadoff man stood in the on-deck circle Monday night as the theme from "Rocky" thundered through the PA system -- almost loud enough for Sly Stallone to hear it in Hollywood.

When times get dicey in Philadelphia, you can never go wrong with a good ear-splitting chorus of "Gonna Fly." We think Benjamin Franklin said that once.

So the music blared halfway through the first inning of Game 5 of the 2009 World Series. And it couldn't have been more fitting, because the time had come for the local baseball team to (ahem) climb off the mat -- or else.

Through two magical postseasons, this was a danger zone the Phillies never reached. Through two magical postseasons, they had never found themselves in the mess they were in Monday night:

Down 3-games-to-1 time. Win-or-else time.

Through two magical postseasons, they'd never trailed in any series. Not one. For five postseason series in a row -- a streak believed to be the longest in the history of baseball. So, who among us didn't wonder how they'd handle that win-or-else pressure if their world ever turned upside-down?

Well, on the first Monday night in November, in the fifth game of this World Series, in the first game they got to play after their ugliest postseason loss since The Bad Old Days, the Phillies had an answer. And it looked like this:

Phillies 8, Yankees 6

Chase Utley did his two-homer, four-RBI Mr. November schtick. Cliff Lee shut down the best lineup in baseball for seven innings before hitting the wall in the eighth. The closer du jour, Ryan Madson, found a way to stagger through a 24-pitch 1-2-3-4-5 ninth inning. And whaddayaknow, the Phillies were still breathing.

Maybe 24 hours from now, in a stadium up the Turnpike, the Yankees will find a way to kill this team off. But if we learned anything from Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, it won't be easy. Just ask the leadoff man.

"How hard is it to kill this team? Hopefully it's like trying to run over an armadillo," said Jimmy Rollins, after his team had lived to play another ballgame. "Just roll up and put our shells on. And after the car goes over us, we unfold and walk away."

Just one night before he uttered those words, the Phillies' clubhouse didn't look like this, sound like this, feel like this -- not after New York's stunning three-run ninth inning had kicked them into the depths of a 3-games-to-1 canyon.

For a long time afterward, the mortuary atmosphere in the room had normally low-key manger Charlie Manuel so concerned he was talking openly about delivering some kind of pregame pep talk.

Uh, never mind.

"I know people were saying Charlie would come in and say something," Rollins reported. "I don't know. About an hour before the game, it looked like Charlie was going to come in and say something. But then he walked in, and the music was loud, and everything was just the same. And he went like, sheesh, and walked away, 'cause nothing needed to be said."

Yes, by the time Charlie Manuel got out his stethoscope and got ready to take the pulse of his team, his troops had already flipped themselves back into a state of mind the manager had been preaching for years: The heck with yesterday. Just win today.

So on Monday afternoon, the atmosphere in that same clubhouse "was great," said Madson. "It was like we were up 3-1. That's the kind of leaders we've got on this team. We show up. Actually, before we left [after Game 4] it was over. It was a tough loss, but when I came in this clubhouse [Monday], it was business as usual."

Of course, it helped that it was Clifton Phifer Lee's turn to pitch.

Much the way the ace of another Phillies generation, Curt Schilling, once took the baseball and wouldn't give it back the night after his '93 Phillies kicked away a five-run lead in Game 4 of their World Series, Cliff Lee had that same give-me-the-ball look on this night.

"I really like his attitude out there," said his catcher, Carlos Ruiz. "He's like: 'That's my mound right here. I want the ball.'"

On this night, though, Lee scuffled through a 20-pitch first inning, allowing a run on a Johnny Damon's single and an A-Rod RBI double. So it was Yankees 1, Phillies 0, faster than you could say, "Joe Carter."

It was the first time in this entire postseason that Lee had thrown a pitch with the other team leading. And you could feel the tension reverberate through a nervous ballpark.

And then … it was time for the theme song from "Rocky."

"You know, I was just saying the other day, 'Why don't we play more 'Rocky?'" said right fielder Jayson Werth.

"I was actually in the bullpen thinking, 'They've got to quit playing that. It's 30 years old,'" laughed reliever Scott Eyre. "But no. Seriously, man. 'Rocky' -- it's great. I can still hear him saying: 'Yo Adrian, I did it.'"

There were no Art Museum steps for the leadoff man to climb. But after the music faded, Jimmy Rollins promptly stomped up there, ground his way through a six-pitch at-bat against Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, stroked a single up the middle and got the Phillies rolling.

Approximately 12 seconds later, Rollins was taking off for second, Shane Victorino was squaring to fake a bunt to help Rollins swipe a base, and Burnett was letting the world know just how much shakier his command was going to be on short rest -- by drilling Victorino in the right index finger.

"When he first hit me, the trainer looked and it was big and nasty," Victorino would say three hours later. "And I was like, 'Oh, no.'"

But after a quick second-inning trip to the X-ray machine revealed no broken bones, he would stay in this game -- for the first seven innings, anyway.

So it was first and second, nobody out, with Mr. November rocking in the batter's box.

Only three times in World Series history -- once in 1910 (Danny Murphy), once in 1969 (Donn Clendenon) and once in 2005 (Paul Konerko) -- had any hitter immediately followed a hit-by-pitch with a home run. But one four-seamer down the middle later, you could add Chase Utley's name to that list.

"Chase -- he's just Superman," said Rollins with a chuckle. "He really is."

Superman's fourth homer of this World Series descended to earth deep in the right-field seats. It was 3-1 Phillies. And even the hearts of Utley's teammates were pounding a little harder than usual.

"Chase's homer -- wow," Madson said. "That whole inning. For me, that was probably the most exciting inning since we won it last year."

Uh, wait. More exciting than Rollins' game-winning double off Jonathan Broxton two weeks ago in the NLCS against the Dodgers? More exciting than the three-run ninth-inning reawakening that won the division series for the Phillies the week before...