Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Phillies Pound Rays and How(ard)!

The Philadelphia Phillies, the losingest franchise in all of pro sports, are just one win away from the World Series title after a 10-2 beatdown of the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 4 last night.

Once again, the formula for this year's World Series is score first, you win. The Phillies again scored first as Pat Burrell drew a bases loaded walk in the first and went up 2-0 on a Pedro Feliz RBI single in the third. Carl Crawford put Tampa on the board with a solo shot off Joe Blanton in the fourth but the Phillies salted this one away in the fifth as Ryan Howard clubbed a three-run, opposite field shot off Andy Sonnanstine, who turned out to be a much better hitter than pitcher in this one. He did get a single in his only at-bat so if nothing else, he can always say he batted a thousand in the World Series.

Former Jay Eric Hinske, who replaced the sore shouldered Cliff Floyd on the Rays playoffs roster, belted a pinch-hit solo homer in the fifth to make it a 5-2 game but the Phils really put the exclamation point on this one when Joe Blanton went deep in the sixth - the first time a pitcher has gone deep in the Fall Classic since 1974. Howard's second homer of the game as well and former Jay Jayson Werth's two-run shots in the eighth were just overkill. Former Jay reliever Trever Miller gave up Howard's second bomb while another former Jays lefty, Scott Eyre, retired the only batter he faced in the seventh.

Tampa's offence has gone dormant in this Series and you can look no further than the three and four hitters in the lineup as Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria still have batting averages of .000. How different would things be today had Longoria's rain-making deep fly went over the fence instead of winding up in Pat Burrell's glove in left Saturday night? I think Joe Maddon should get this man on a plane to Philly to give them a motivational speech.

Things look really good right now for the fightin' Phils! They've overcome the ghosts of the 1993 World Series by winning Games 3 and 4 as they made sure they didn't blow a huge lead in Game 4 this time around. Now they hope Cole Hamels can do his best Curt Schilling Game 5 impersonation with a dominanting performance on the hill. Scott Kazmir goes to the hill for Tampa as they try to send the series back to Game 6 Wednesday night. First pitch should be around 8:30 or so.

Posted by #2JBrumfield on Monday, October 27 2008 @ 10:42 AM EDT.

Phillies Pound Rays and How(ard)! | 8 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Mick Doherty - Monday, October 27 2008 @ 11:22 AM EDT (#193590) #

"74 was Dodgers/A's -- so who hit the homer? Holtzman? I remember him being a pretty good hitter (for a pitcher). That was just after the start of the DH, so most veteran AL pitchers had some experience with the bat and Holtzman spent years as a Cub ...

Mike D - Monday, October 27 2008 @ 11:26 AM EDT (#193591) #

OK, who else had Joe Blanton in the "First Moneyball draftee to hit a World Series home run" pool?

whiterasta80 - Monday, October 27 2008 @ 03:47 PM EDT (#193596) #

Mike that's probably my favourite tidbit to get posted on BB in the past year.

zeppelinkm - Tuesday, October 28 2008 @ 08:28 AM EDT (#193601) #

There's a world series game suspended midgame and there is no tuesday morning laptop quarterbacking going on??

I think the suspended game helps the Rays. Hamels is a good pitcher and he's been limited to 6 innings now. Will that help be enough?

Matthew E - Tuesday, October 28 2008 @ 09:18 AM EDT (#193605) #

Apparently some fans brought this banner to the game last night:

---

Crikey! Do it for Steve!

(picture of Steve Irwin)

Beat the Rays!

AWeb - Tuesday, October 28 2008 @ 11:04 AM EDT (#193608) #

That's a classic banner...I think enough time has passed to make Steve Irwin jokes again.

I can't imagine a worse sport to play in the cold, wind and rain than baseball (I've done the wintery wet softball thing, which was terrible), especially for the fielders, who just have to stand there, trying to keep warm. That the game wasn't called before it was tied up was clearly dangerous for the players, which could have been avoided by Selig just announcing before the game that it would have gone all 9 innings no matter what. I'm not sure I believe the story that they decided this all beforehand, since the field was clearly not in good shape by the 4th. It was clear they were hoping desperately for a tie game.

Kudos to Upton for his stolen base and fast run home to tie it up - I didn't think he'd be able to keep it upright. And he beat a surprisingly good throw - the catcher should have been blocking the plate, but it's hard to invite a collision given the conditions. Anti-kudos to the home plate ump, who apparently didn't think Kazmir was allowed to have a called strike at the knees. The non-Fox feed announcer (Sutcliffe) blamed it on showing up the ump, which is a terrible excuse for an umpire to intentionally make the wrong calls (that's what "squeezing the strikezone" is, essentially). Maybe it wasn't that bad, but it seemed pretty obvious for a few batters.

Has anyone made it clear what happens if the game can't be finished tonight? Are they really going to try and squeeze in 3 innings and hope someone comes out ahead in hopes of missing another downpour? One assumes Tampa can push back their games a day if necessary, which could lead to interesting starting pitching decisions that wouldn't have been available before.

I was shocked to hear this was the first time this had ever happened in the World Series. I guess MLB have always gotten lucky - October can have some pretty terrible weather. With Minnesota building an open-air stadium (apparently without a retractable roof), that adds another place where this could happen. If MLB expands the playoffs at some point, they better figure out how to ensure the season doesn't go longer or start earlier - so it's either lots of double headers, or fewer games, or no more playoff teams.

Mike Green - Tuesday, October 28 2008 @ 11:13 AM EDT (#193609) #

In the old days, October baseball was done by the middle of the month. With weather like Philadelphia has had, the game simply would have been postponed. The 62 series is an example.

It really is a bad sign for baseball when its showcase event is played under deplorable conditions.

Chuck - Tuesday, October 28 2008 @ 11:32 AM EDT (#193610) #

It really is a bad sign for baseball when its showcase event is played under deplorable conditions.

Can you imagine if the game had to be rolled back to the last complete inning and Der Bud had to retroactively announce that Philadelphia had both won the game and the World Series on a night when no baseball should have been played at all? Imagine the PR disaster.

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