PHILADELPHIA — Shane Victorino says there's no reason for panic. The fact that the Philadelphia Phillies squandered an early three-run lead, eventually losing 8-5 to the Yankees last night in Game 3 of the World Series, will be in their rear view mirror by the time Game 4 gets underway today.

As for being down in the Series, 2-1, the first time they've trailed in a series since being eliminated in a three-game sweep by the Colorado Rockies in 2007? No reason to feel any less confident that sometime later this week they'll again be wearing the crown.

"It is what it is,'' said Victorino, whose second-inning sacrifice fly off winner Andy Pettitte staked the Phils to a 3-0 lead, only to see it vanish by the fifth. "I know we're down, but it doesn't feel like it.

"We'll just go out tomorrow night, feel strong and try to get CC (Yankees' Game 4 starter CC Sabathia, whom they beat in Game 1 and will be coming back on just three days rest).

"But we can't panic. Can't worry about it — or we'd be putting added pressure on ourselves. We're too good a club to worry about being down in the Series. We'll just keep going about our business and try to get a win tomorrow.''

That one-game-at-a-time formula worked well enough for the defending champs to win 93 games this season, enough to claim the National League East for the third straight year and punch their ticket into the post-season. Since then they've taken care of those same Rockies in four games in the first round of the playoffs, before knocking off the Dodgers in five in the NLCS.

The one thing they'd always had going for them not only this year, but especially in 2008 when they won it all, was never being worse than even in a series. Until now.

But simply because they're forced to play from behind and know that to become the first N.L.team since the '76 Reds to repeat they're going to have to win in Yankee Stadium at least one more time doesn't change that formula.

"We expect to win,'' said Victorino, who went 0-for-3, just getting under the ball on his second inning sacrifice fly following Jimmy Rollins' walk with the bases loaded. "We don't let things get to us.

"We'll go out tomorrow like any other time.''

While Victorino was relatively quiet offensively, he was involved in one of the key plays of the game at the defensive end. The Yankees had just tied it up at 3, with one out in the fifth on Pettitte's RBI single when Derek Jeter lined a ball into center.

It's the kind of play where Victorino usually excels, racing in to make the catch nine times out of 10. This was that 10th time, as Victorino, refusing to use the slippery, wet field from a constant rain that delayed the start of the game 80 minutes as an excuse, couldn't quite get there. Worse, the ball rolled by him, enabling Pettitte, who was fearful the ball would be caught, to still have time to reach second, rather than being forced out.

When Johnny Damon followed with a ringing two-run double in the gap, the Yankees were ahead to stay.

"I was trying to be aggressive,'' the Flyin' Hawaiian from St. Anthony High on Maui explained later. "I didn't catch it.

"It was wet out there, but not to where I'd make it an excuse for not catching the ball.''

That play and others aside, the Phillies still might've overcome them and pulled out the victory if they'd done more than get two hits — solo homers by Jayson Werth (his second of the night) and Carlos Ruiz — over the last seven innings vs. Pettitte and the Yankees' bullpen.

"He found his groove,'' said Victorino of Pettitte, who pitched the first six. "I tip my hat to him.

"But that's the game of baseball. We'll get them tomorrow. We got CC in Game 1.

"Right now all we can do is go home and sleep.''

By the time he wakes up you can be sure that plenty of Phillies fans will be in a state of panic, fearing the worst now that the Yanks are just two wins away from their 27th World Championship.

Fortunately for them the team they'll be cheering for won't be.