Oct 28th 2008 10:45PM by Nick Dallamora (author feed)
Sup, buds? I thought the last half-game of the season would be a great time to get back on the ol’ wagon. So, yeah.

How about this World Series, right? Lots of controversy and…time to talk about it. With the gap in play tonight and AOL prohibiting me from watching the NBA I was forced to watch Fringe, which sucks no matter how many people say it’s interesting. I saw 3 minutes of it at halftime and was half tempted to send a letter to the writers. “How dare you.”

So my prediction for the Series: They resume play tomorrow for an inning, where the Phillies take the lead, and call it after a light drizzle. Then everyone will act outraged when they really don’t give a crap and Kevin Blackistone will defend the decision. Big wheel keeps on turnin’.

While I have the mic, I’d like to pimp. Drew Magary’s book is awesome and you should pick it up. Loved it.Continue Reading

Oct 27th 2008 1:30PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
Let’s churn the wayback machine to the last time the Tampa Bay Rays faced a must-win game against a left-handed playoff ace thought to be near-unhittable by many baseball pundits against a landslide of momentum that resulted in most people everywhere counting them out.

Oh, that was only ten days ago?

With Cole Hamels on the mound, things look bleak for the Rays. I’ll be the first to admit that. After seeing them boot baseballs and flail at pitches for two straight nights in Citizen’s Bank Park, I’m not optimistic about seeing the first World Series Game 6 since 2003. But I’m not counting the Rays out. Continue Reading

Oct 27th 2008 7:54PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
It’s never a good time for both your No. 3 and cleanup hitter to enter a prolonged slump, let alone the first four games of the World Series. But that’s the predicament the Rays are in with Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, who’ve combined to go 0-for-29 at the plate with 15 strikeouts. (Like you needed me to rattle off those stats — Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have repeated them so much I hear them when I sleep …)

Needless to say, with the entire season on the line, Joe Maddon can no longer cross his fingers and hope for the best. Instead, he’ll shake up his lineup tonight, bumping Carl Crawford from fifth to second and moving everybody else down a spot.

In hindsight, this is probably something Maddon should have tried earlier: Crawford has been one of the team’s hottest hitters the entire postseason, and now he’ll be hitting one spot in front of B.J. Upton, who already has seven home runs so far in the postseason. Plus, they’re both extremely dangerous on the basepaths, meaning Longoria and Pena can simply focus on making contact instead of trying to launch every pitch out of the ballpark.

Or something like that. In the end, it may not make a difference: Cole Hamels can make even the best hitters look foolish, and this may be too little, too late. But at the very least I’ll give credit to Maddon for trying.

Oct 27th 2008 8:00PM by Matt Watson (author feed)

This is for everything. The Phillies are just one win away from clinching their first World Series title since 1980. How long has it been? Ryan Howard, last night’s hero, and Cole Hamels, tonight’s starter, weren’t even born the last time the Phillies hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy.

But while the Phillies may already be planning their parade, don’t count out the Rays just yet. It’ll be an uphill battle against Hamels, who’s been nearly untouchable thus far in the postseason, but at some point the middle of Tampa Bay’s order to come through … right? I wouldn’t bet on it, but we’ll find out for sure tonight. Join me at 8 PM as we live blog what may be the last baseball game until April.Continue Reading

Oct 27th 2008 11:28PM by Pat Lackey (author feed)

With the Phillies and Rays tied at two after 5 1/2 innings in Game 5 of the World Series, the decision was made to suspend the game until tomorrow night due to pouring rain and near-freezing temperatures. In reality, baseball rules forced the decision to come an inning too late, but a late decision is better than deciding the World Series in a driving rainstorm on a field made of mud.

Playoff baseball games are played under the same rules as regular season games, which means all games after five innings are considered complete (to the last full inning) if they have to end before the ninth inning (In his post-game presser, Bud Selig claimed he was going to suspend the game until tomorrow regardless of the score). The only exception is a tie game, which is allowed to be suspended at any point and resumed at a later date. This forced the game to press on an inning and a half too long, as the Phillies held a 2-1 lead after the top of the sixth and delaying the game at that point would mean it would be possible for them to clinch the World Series in the clubhouse after five innings. Everyone caught a break when Carlos Pena signled B.J. Upton home from second base, tying the game at two and giving baseball the chance to suspend the game should they be unable to resume tonight.

The fifth and top of the sixth innings were an absolute embarrassment for baseball tonight. Between the cold weather and driving rain, the pitchers and fielders were obviously strugging to play any sport that actually resembled baseball. Upton reached first on a weather-aided single, then scored on Pena’s hit with a slide on base paths so muddy they might as well have been a slip ‘n slide. I don’t really understand why there isn’t a rule that all post-season games must consist of nine innings and they’re otherwise suspended until they can be completed, no matter what the score is, but I’m not Bud Selig. That’s a good thing.

Oct 27th 2008 11:56PM by B (author feed)

Poor guy looks like he’s running on a big piece of beef jerky. It must have been like stealing second on a Crocodile Mile. But hey, one more day of baseball means one more day of World Series Dugouts.

The sequel to the popular Fanhouse Era classic is after the jump.Continue Reading

Oct 28th 2008 12:33AM by Matt Watson (author feed)
I’m sure that’s the question being asked by every other person in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay right about now. The answer? Weather permitting, Tuesday night, 8 PM ET.

Trouble is, the forecast doesn’t call for the weather to let up, so there’s a very good chance that the start of the game (or, to be technically correct, the start of the bottom of the sixth) will be delayed even further. This is Bud Selig’s worst nightmare, right? Perhaps … but perhaps not.

First and foremost, Selig and his cronies have to be thrilled about the idea of another night of baseball — it’s like finding $20 in your coat from the year before, except instead of $20, it’s millions of dollars of ad revenue from another night of commercials.Continue Reading

Oct 28th 2008 1:02AM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Rightfully so, the only thing baseball fans are talking about right now is the weather in Philadelphia, but don’t forget why the Rays were able to overcome the hole Scott Kazmir put them in the first inning: the middle of their order finally woke up.

Carlos Pena (pictured) and Evan Longoria opened the World Series by going a combined 0-for-29 in the first four games, and at least early on, it didn’t look like their luck was going to change in Game 5. After being dropped one spot in the lineup before the game, Pena opened the second inning by grounding out to first base on an ill-advised bunt attempt. One pitch later, Longoria followed by flying out to center. Two pitches, two outs. It was ugly.

Fortunately for Rays fans, that’s when the two sluggers picked up the pace. Pena doubled off the wall in his next at-bat, scoring one batter later when Longoria drove him home. The next time Pena stepped up to bat, he singled to bring B.J. Upton home. Did a slippery ball and horrendous field conditions play a part in Upton scoring? Sure. But it all started by Pena putting wood on the ball, something quite honestly he wasn’t able to do with any frequency the first four games of the series.

Mother Nature may have conspired by rendering Cole Hamels moot (and Bud Selig helped out by waiting until the last possible second to suspend the game), but if the Rays come back to win this game, Pena and Longoria deserve most of the credit.

Oct 28th 2008 3:00AM by Pat Lackey (author feed)
I am a baseball fan through and through. I watch other sports, and I enjoy them, but there’s nothing I love more than baseball. I’ll defend the strategy, the precision and the beauty of the sport to the end of the universe. Tonight, as a baseball fan, I was disgusted by what happened on the field in Philadelphia during Game 5 of the World Series.

Around the fourth inning, the rain started to fall on Citizens Bank Park. With the Phillies leading 2-1, I immediately thought to myself, “This game could end in a rain delay if they let the Rays bat in the top of the fifth and the Phillies could win the World Series in a 4 1/2 inning game.” Of all of the embarrassing things that Bud Selig has done in his time as commissioner of Major League Baseball, ending the World Series in a shortened game would’ve been the trump card.

Continue Reading

Oct 28th 2008 5:00AM by Andrew Johnson (author feed)
The Rays accomplished quite a bit Monday night. They managed to scrape out the game-tying run against Philly ace Cole Hamels in the sixth inning (in frigid temperatures, in a torrential downpour, in front of a hostile crowd).

Down 3-1 in the World Series, they have new life — a clean slate with three innings of play to book a return trip to Tampa Bay. Perhaps best of all, they won’t have to deal with Hamels again in the series.

The reward for their heroic efforts? An indefinite hotel stay in beautiful Wilmington, Del. (population 72,286; home to Delaware State University; fictional setting for the novel Fight Club; and land of no sales tax) until Bud Selig and his cronies determine baseball can resume in the City of Brotherly Love*.

You see the Rays, figuring like everyone else that Game 5 would end sometime Monday night or in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, checked out of their hotel in downtown Philadelphia Monday afternoon. When Major League Baseball suspended the game in the middle of the sixth inning, they weren’t able to extend their stay there, or apparently at any other lodging in Philly proper.

One glance at a map, and you can see that Wilmington isn’t very far from Philadelphia — something in the neighborhood of 35 miles.

Still, it’s awfully amusing that because of the Game 5 debacle/mess/misfortune, the AL champions will now have to cross a state line just to get to the ballpark whenever action in the World Series continues.