Davidoff: Lee in position of savior for Game 5

ARLINGTON, Texas

It figures that before he finally cashes in on his whirlwind two-year ride through baseball, Cliff Lee must try to perform one more rescue mission.

The Rangers are in peril of ending their season at home after the Giants pulled off a 4-0 victory in World Series Game 4 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington last night. San Francisco rookie Madison Bumgarner threw a gem to give the National League entry a 3-1 edge. One win in the next three games, and the Giants will claim their first world championship since 1954, when they played at the Polo Grounds.

Lee will try to keep the Rangers' season alive Monday night, going against Giants ace Tim Lincecum, and send this so-so Fall Classic back to San Francisco.

It reflects Lee's odd journey through the game that he can speak to this precise scenario. A year ago, he took the mound - at home - for the Phillies in World Series Game 5 with his team trailing 3-1. He outpitched fellow Arkansan A.J. Burnett to keep the Phils alive, 8-6, although the Yankees captured the title in Game 6.

One difference between then and now, though: Lee entered 2009 Game 5 having dominated the Yankees in Game 1. This time he'll strive for redemption after a Game 1 loss against the Giants in which he allowed seven runs (six earned) and eight hits in 42/3 innings.

"It's basically the last start of the season for me," Lee said before Game 4, "and I want to do everything I can to help this team win the World Series."

If he prevails in Game 5, the Rangers likely will ask him to honor those words by making himself available out of the bullpen in Game 6 and/or Game 7 in San Francisco.

The Texas front office ranks among the smartest in baseball, so it would be pushing it to profess that Rangers officials expressed shock at Lee's lousy Game 1 performance. They were, however, taken aback by how little the lefthander commanded his stuff.

Lee passed on offering reasons for his implosion. "Anything I say is an excuse," he said. Yet you obviously could wonder if his eight days between starts contributed.

It'll be the standard four days of rest this time, and the certainty that in Game 1, it wasn't them, it was him. Well, at least mostly him.

"If I were throwing every pitch on the corner and working ahead in the count and they were doing that, I really wouldn't know what to do," Lee said. "I would think I would have to change sequences and change my approach to them. But that wasn't the case. I was throwing balls over the middle of the plate, and they did a really good job swinging the bat and working the count and getting themselves in good positions to hit."

After Monday night, Lee's next start likely will come as the highest-paid pitcher in baseball. The Rangers and Yankees appear primed for a historic bidding war for the 32-year-old's services. Texas, under new ownership, will be motivated to build on the most successful season in franchise history. The Yankees, entering their first offseason without George Steinbrenner, want to wipe away the disappointment of an ALCS loss to the Rangers.

When you're as good as Lee, rescue missions come around as a matter of course. This won't be his last one. It'll just be his cheapest for the foreseeable future.