Phillies Win World Series
Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | MLB, Sports
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in World Series Game 5 to capture the World Series crown. It was the first World Series win for the Phillies since 1980. The teams were finally able to resume Game 5 48 hours after it started on Monday, October 27th. Game 5 had been suspended because of inclement weather with the score tied at 2 in the middle of the 6th inning. The resumption of the game got off with a bang as Geoff Jenkins pinch-hit for Cole Hamels and delivered a lead-off double to right center field. Jimmy Rollins sacrificed Jenkins to 3rd base and Jayson Werth drove in Jenkins with the go-ahead run with a bloop single to shallow center field that Akinori Iwamura could not hold onto. The Rays prevented further damage in the bottom of the 6th inning by getting out the Phillies 2 best hitters – Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.
The Rays struck right back in the top of the 7th inning. After reliever Ryan Madsen struck out Dioner Navarro to lead off the inning, Rays right fielder crushed a Madsen pitch deep to left field for a solo home run that tied the game at 3. After a single by Jason Bartlett and a sacrifice by the pitcher J.P. Howell that moved Bartlett to 3rd base, Chase Utley made a great fielding play to stave off anymore Rays runs. Iwamura hit an infield single behind the 2nd base bag, and instead of throwing an off-balance throw to 1st base to try to get the speedy Iwamura, Utley held onto the ball. Once Utley saw Bartlett round 3rd base and head for home, Utley made a perfect skip throw to the plate where Ruiz tagged out Bartlett to the end the threat and keep the score tied at 3.
The Phillies took advantage of the momentum swing when Pat Burrell led off the bottom of the 7th inning with a long double to deep left center field. Burrell thought he had hit it out of the park and was leisurely jogging around 1st base while he admired his swing. But the ball ventured more to center field than to left field where the outfield wall is 10 feet higher, and the ball hit the top of the wall and bounced back into the field of play. If Burrell had been hustling from the start, he may have had a triple, so with Burrell at 2nd base, Manager Charlie Manuel elected to pinch-run for the power-hitting Burrell. The move paid off as Shane Victorino moved the pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett over to 3rd base on a groundout to the right side and Pedro Feliz drove in the game-winning run with an RBI single to center field.
Now all the Phillies needed to do was record 6 more outs. After Carl Crawford singled to lead off the 8th inning, Phillies reliever J.C. Romero induced a B.J. Upton double-play groundout and then a Carlos Pena flyout to left field. The Phillies brought in Closer Brad Lidge to start the 9th inning. Brad Lidge had been perfect all season long – 47 saves in 47 save opportunities. But Lidge is most-often remembered for giving up a monster Grand Slam to Albert Pujols in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS that forced the Astros to go back to St. Louis to win 1 more game on the road to advance to the 2005 World Series. And although the Houston Astros did win that Game 6 in St. Louis, the Astros were swept in the World Series by the Chicago White Sox and Lidge’s career turned south following confidence problems that he couldn’t shake for the last 2 years.
So here we were – Lidge had all the weight of the city of Philadelphia on his shoulders, and he didn’t disappoint. He got the all-important 1st out on an Evan Longoria pop out to shallow center field. Dioner Navarro singled and pinch-runner Fernando Perez stole 2nd base, giving the Rays a golden scoring chance with a man on 2nd base with only 1 out. In an interesting move, Rays Manager Joe Maddon elected to pinch-hit Ben Zobrist for Rocco Baldelli to get the righty-lefty match-up (Maddon had let the right-handed hitting Baldelli hit against right-handed throwing Madsen in the 7th inning and Baldelli came through with the game-tying home run). Lidge got Zobrist to line out to right field and then he closed out the magical night by striking out pinch-hitter Eric Hinske on 3 pitches to preserve the World Series win.
J.C. Romero picked up the win – his 2nd win of the World Series. Brad Lidge picked up the save – his 2nd save of the World Series. Cole Hamels was named the World Series MVP, going 1-0 in 2 starts and keeping the Rays hot hitters in check in each start.
After that final pitch, Lidge fell down to his knees with his arms outstretched in celebration. Catcher Ruiz ran out to celebrate with him. And then the real party was on – with towel-waving fans going berserk as they experienced the joy of a World Series Championship for the city of Philadelphia.
