Stand-up shortstop

But while we’re on the good-guy theme, kudos also to the Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins. He didn’t do anything as heroic as helping an accident victim, but he did do something more surprising — try to take the heat off a teammate for a bonehead play.

That teammate was Brad Lidge, who failed to cover third base in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the World Series, enabling the Yankees’ Johnny Damon to take third without a play. The gaffe seemed to rattle Lidge, who quickly gave up three runs and let New York take control of the series.

It was an unusual play.

With Damon on first and two out, the Phillies put on a radical shift for pull hitter Mark Teixeira, so radical that when Damon took off on a steal attempt, third baseman Pedro Feliz covered second. When the catcher’s throw took Feliz to the first-base side of the bag, Damon alertly bounced up and raced to third.

Where Lidge should have been.

Enter Rollins.

“I take responsibility for it,” the premier shortstop said after the game. “I make sure that the pitcher knows that with Teixeira, we play the shift over, that he knows that on the steal he has to cover third.

“That time, I didn’t really mention anything to Brad, so when you make the pitch, in his mind it was a regular steal. But with the way the defense was set up, that’s my job to make sure that he knows to go to third. I’m the captain of the infield. It’s my job.”

Perhaps Rollins really felt that way. Or perhaps he was just trying to provide Lidge with some cover. Either way, Jimmy Rollins is a class act.