The Phillies wasted no time breaking the 2-2 tie in the bottom of the sixth when Brett Favre's twin double, Geoff Jenkins, hit a leadoff double against his former Brewers teammate Grant Balfour. Jimmy Rollins moved him over to third on a sac bunt and Jayson Werth blooped an RBI single that Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura couldn't corral in short center field because the Rays infield was playing in.
Rocco Baldelli quickly tied it for Tampa Bay with a one-out homer off Ryan Madson in the seventh. Jason Bartlett followed with a single and J.P. Howell, who relieved Balfour after he gave up Werth's blooper, stayed in the game and moved Bartlett over to second with a sac bunt. In what was really the TSN turning point of the game (I know it was on Fox and Sportsnet, okay?), Iwamura hit one up the middle off J.C. Romero and it had "clean RBI single" written all over it. Instead, Chase Utley ranged over to get the ball and instead of throwing to first, he threw the ball to home to nail Jason Bartlett at the plate as Bartlett was going all the way on contact. That was the final out and it kept the game tied.
Howell remained in the game for the Rays and faced Pat Burrell to start off the seventh, even though Burrell hits lefties much better than righties (.279 vs. .238 during the regular season). The Phillies long-time whipping boy, in what may turn out to be his final at-bat with the club as he will become a free agent, sent a drive to deep center that just missed going out. He wound up at second instead. Chad Bradford came on to face Shane Victorino, who couldn't get a bunt down but still managed to move pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett to third with a two-strike grounder to the right side of the infield. The bearded one then came home to score on a Pedro Feliz base knock up the middle.
The Rays tried to battle back in the eighth when Carl Crawford singled off Romero to lead things off but he was gone one pitch later on the front end of a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of B.J. Upton. Carlos Pena then lined out to left on a 3-1 pitch to end the inning. David Price finally came into the game for the Rays in the eighth and managed to keep the Phils off the scoreboard as he struck out Ryan Howard to strand Utley, who had walked and stolen second.
Tampa tried to rally again against "Mr. Perfect", Brad Lidge, when Dioner Navarro got abord on a broken-bat flare to right. Pinch-runner Fernando Perez easily stole second but had to remain there when pinch-hitter Ben Zobrist lined out to right. It all came down to Eric Hinske, who was only activated on the Rays roster when Cliff Floyd cried uncle to a shoulder injury. Hinske had homered in his lone at-bat of the Series in Game 4 but the former Jay went down swinging on three straight Lidge sliders and just like that, the series and the 2008 baseball season was over.
Congratulations to the Phillies and to former Jays Jayson Werth, Scott Eyre, Canadian Matt Stairs and former general manager Pat Gillick, who is now 3-for-3 in the big dance. The man who built the club to stop the Phillies in their last World Series appearance in 1993 is now the toast of the town in the City of Brotherly Love.
Mitch Williams, all is now forgiven! You're the latest member of the Bill Buckner club. Steve Bartman is still waiting.
On a personal note, I guess I won my own Game 5 contest by coming the closest. I predicted J.C. Romero would get the win but I was wrong on Jimmy Rollins scoring the winning run as Eric Bruntlett crossed the dish instead.
Okay, the season is over. Now what?
