Werth the Wait in Philadelphia

Peter Schiller — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:12:42 +0000

Phillies Win Their 2nd World Series Title

The Philadelphia Phillies have won the 2008 World Series 4 games to 1 over the Tampa Bay Rays, ending their (the Rays’) Cinderella season. 48 hours after the start of Game 5, they resumed it from the bottom of the 6th tied at 2. They won the series 4 games to 1, but it was a much more exciting series than those numbers evoke. There was only 1 blowout and all of the remaining games were decided.

Game 1 in Tampa Bay: Phillies 3 Rays 2
Game 2 in Tampa Bay: Rays 4 Phillies 2

Game 3 in Philly: Phillies 5 Rays 4
Game 4 in Philly: Phillies 10 Rays 2
Game 5 in Philly: Phillies 4 Rays 3

Game 5

In the bottom of the 6th, the Phillies went ahead 3-2 on a Werth (RF) single, scoring Jenkins (PH) who had doubled to lead off the inning only to have a Rocco Baldelli (RF) HR tie it back up again in the top of the 7th. Then in the bottom of the 7th, Feliz (3B) singled home Bruntlett (LF) to go ahead 4-3 and that’s how the game ended with closer Brad Lidge closing the door in the 9th to seal the Championship and end the series.

JC Romero got the win, JP Howell the loss and Lidge got the save with more detail of the importance of that last stat a little later in this post.

2008 World Series MVP

Starting pitcher Cole Hamels who went 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA and 8 K’s in his two starts (he started game 5 Monday night) won the MVP award and a 2010 Camaro on his wife’s birthday (last night, 10/29) and said that the car will be hers.

Cole had 4 victories in this post season and almost had his 5th in game 5 if it were not for Baldelli’s 7th inning HR. 5 wins would have been a single player record for the post season!

Who else would have made a good choice as series MVP?

Philly 2008 Milestones

The Phillies were 86-0 after leading through 8 innings this year
Closer Brad Lidge was 48-48 in saves this year. 41-41 in the regular season and 7-7 in the playoffs with 2 of those coming in the World Series.

Phillies Franchise Milestones

126 years old
over 10,000 losses
2 World Series Victories (1980 & 2008): Priceless!

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For the First Time in World Series History…

Peter Schiller — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:34:33 +0000

For the first time in the history of the World Series, a game has been suspended due to rain. The game was suspended immediately after the top of the 6th inning, after the Rays tied the game at 2 all in that half inning. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has since said that the game was never in danger of being called after 5 innings (an official game). He stated that it wouldn’t be fair to either team or the great fans of baseball, to end the World Series in such a way. The game needs to end in normal fashion in order to keep the integrity of the game alive.

With that being said, they will attempt to get game 5 finished tonight, weather permitting.

Through 5 and a half innings, we saw Kazmir get squeezed by the home plate umpire which directly or indirectly led to his 6 walks last night. We also saw the Rays 1B and team leader Carlos Pena and super rookie 3B Evan Longoria start to break out of their World Series slumps as they combined for back to back hits that resulted in their first run in the fourth.

A double by Pena followed by a Longoria single that plated Pena. Then Pena singled home Upton who just prior to Pena’s second hit of the game, stole 2B in the mud, putting himself in scoring position. Then the game was mercifully suspended due to the increasingly poor field conditions. The fact that they got to play that much baseball is a testament to the Philly grounds crew and the players themselves. Thankfully, no one got hurt because of the conditions.

Keep your fingers crossed to the ability to resume play tonight! The original forecast showed colder wet weather tonight in Philly. We’ll all just have to wait and pray that it lets up just enough to get the rest of this one in.