Oct 22 2008
Hamels and Utley give Phillies 1-0 lead in World Series
For the fourth time this post season, “King” Cole Hamels was a master on the mound. There’s really not much to say about Cole other than the fact that he is blatantly one of the elite pitchers in the game. Hamels out-dueled fellow 24-year old lefty Scott Kazmir to pick up his fourth win of the playoffs. Cole’s line was 7 innings and two runs on five hits while striking out five and walking two. That’s the type of line that you expect from your ace in the World Series. He also displayed the ability to work out of a jam, including forcing B.J. Upton to ground into two double plays during his first two at bats. Hamels did an excellent job of taking home-field advantage away from the Rays.
Before Cole even threw a pitch, the Phillies had the lead courtesy of a two-run home run by Chase Utley off of Kazmir. Utley’s homer seemed to suck the life out of Tropicana Field a little bit and had to have some effect on the young Rays by forcing them to play from behind so early in the game. The Phils tacked on another run in the fourth inning on a Carlos “Clutch” Ruiz ground out that drove in “The Flyin’ Hawaiian” Shane Victorino and pushed the Phillies’ lead to 3-0.
Then the Rays started to chip away. Carl Crawford answered in the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer and Akinori Iwamura drove in Jason Bartlett on an RBI double in the fifth inning to make it 3-2 Phils. The Rays were threatening again in the sixth when Carlos Pena led off the inning by reaching on a Ryan Howard error. However, Hamels bailed himself out by picking Pena off and then cruised through the sixth and seventh inning before turning it over to the ‘pen.
The Phillies’ bullpen did not disappoint. “The Mad Dog” Ryan Madson came out throwing heat, and even touched 97 m.p.h. a couple of times. Tampa’s hitters were no match for him. Then it was time for Brad “Lights Out” Lidge, the man who entered the World Series a perfect 46-for-46 in save opportunities through the NLCS. Mr. Lidge had his slider working tonight and it was vicious. Pena and Evan Longoria were lucky to make any contact. Ultimately, both struck out. Crawford came to the plate as Tampa’s last hope, but Lidge forced him to foul out to Pedro “Peter Happy” Feliz to end the game. I have to give credit to Feliz on the final out since that was definitely a tough catch to make.
My major complaint with the Phillies is that Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard, the past two National League MVPS, totally sucked. The terrible two-some combined to go 0-for-9 with five strikeouts and nine left on base. The Phils cannot afford many games like that from those two. Throw in an 0-for-3 night from Pat Burrell and it’s amazing that the Phillies were able to win. Luckily for them, they have the best pitcher in the series. However, let’s hope that Rollins, Howard, and Burrell can get it going or else wins will be hard to come by. I also didn’t enjoy the fact that Chris Coste was the DH. I know Uncle Charlie was playing the match-up, but it’s not like Greg Dobbs could have done any worse, and playing Coste forced Manuel’s hand in terms of any moves because there was no catcher on the bench. Charlie, I want to see Coste on the bench tomorrow night. None of this DH’ing nonsense for him.
The Phils will look to take a 2-0 series lead tomorrow when they send Brett Myers to the mound to take on James Shields. Myers is definitely a wild card because he is a total wack-o, so he could be really good, like he was in his first two starts, or he could be really bad, like he was the last two weeks of September. Nobody really knows. Brett’s been mighty terrible on the road this season (i.e. 3-8 in 16 starts with a 6.21 ERA), so things could get ugly. On the other hand, James Shields pitches extremely well at the Trop. That could be trouble for the Phightins. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Go Phillies.
