kiddies don't read Joe Maddens lips.

That seemed like a balk to me, but anyone who claims they know "exactly" what a balk is probably lying. :D

So... Brad Lidge meltdown, anyone?

I would say not... :D

haha... no, that was a pretty sick 1,2,3 inning

:rolleyes:

In a perfect world they go up 2 games to none tomorrow and we don't have to hear those damn idiotic cow bells again this year.

:rolleyes:

:)

Oh, I'll say his again. I'll take Hamels over Peavy. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind Peavy as a number two in the rotation to him.

Your smiley key is stuck... ;)

That's just wrong. Funny, but wrong. :)

Man, AM radio sucks ass. It was the only thing I could find the game on tonight. Of the three stations, 2 of them were static-y as hell, and had joe morgan on them. The other one was the phils guys, but it was even worse. I guess i'll go online and try to find an FM station my autosearch must have missed.

Go Phils.

That wasn't static, that was cow bells. ;)

The World Series needs more cowbell!

Cowbells, what next the Tampa fans will do the wave?

Well, at least Philly won't be swept.

Wake me up when we win three more. :D

:D

More Cowbell!

the Rays come out with some fire early on. Lets hope they can put some early runs on the board

It's going to be a longggggggggggg night.

That was too short of a single trying to score from 2nd.

I see your point but with 2 outs I am a fan of being aggressive, make the guy throw you out.

I wish they would lay off the post season record stats, we all know they are total BS since the wildcard.

Just not our night. Well, at least it'll likely be a 5-Game series with th Phils having home-field advantage.

Woot.

Good job, Rays.

Home plate umpire was pathetic.
First, making a strikeout motion, then awarding 1st base. Second, Rollins clearly HBP.
This umpire should be called on those 2 incidents, because of the game changing nature of it.

The Rays saw this post and asked me to tell you "thank you."

The strikeout thing was flat out strange. I have never seen that before. "Strike three, oh wait, take your base"

The hit batter thing was also odd in that you clearly hear it. I can see that it would be hard to call if there was no sound but there was clearly a tick and then the ball hitting the glove.

Both games have had awfully inconsistent strike zones. They should be doing a lot better with "the best umps" in there.

SI

No matter how bad the umps were, they didn't LOB 12 or so guys. Gotta find some timely hitting.

I think this is going to be a close series and go 6 or 7. Both teams seem relatively evenly matched. Should be a fun one :).

I think the big reason why the Phils won't start Hamels on short rest is because of his injury history. I think 2008 is the first time he's escaped injury in any level of the Phillies organization for the entire year.

As far as last night's game went, I think it's just indicative of how good both of these teams are.

Both Myers and Shields pitched really well last night. It was just a matter of the Rays being able to execute with men on base and the Phillies being unable to last night. The biggest mistake Myers made was letting two men get on 2nd and 3rd with no outs in the first. For Phillies fans, this is just par for the course with Myers. The rest of the night, he was pretty much unexectedly seemless.

I think the edge for the Phillies is that we're going back to Philadelphia. Taking a look at it, the team did what they had to do in Tampa. Tampa had the best home-field advantage of any team in baseball, mainly because of that quirky park. Whether it was the lighting, the turf, the inability to find the ball as it left the pichers hand (which haunted Howard in Game 1 against a lefty and Dobbs in Game 2), the sound from the cowbells, etc; I was just glad to see the Phils steal one and be competitive in Game 2. Simply put, if the Phillies maintain homefield advantage by winning every game at home, they win the series.

I think one story that is not getting enough attention, is the struggles of Longoria. He has looked as bad as Rollins has in this series and has killed some run-scoring opportunities of his own.

As far as the starting pitching goes, I'm not sure it's as much of an advantage as people are making it out to be. Moyer was hampered by a tight strikezone in Milwaukee; and just got plain jumped on in Los Angeles. The key was both losses occured during the first game away in the series. I get the feeling that Moyer will pitch very effectively tomorrow night, probably going 6 innings and allowing no more than 3 or 4 runs.

I think you'll see Victorino where he belongs in 2nd of the order. Fact is, with Rollins struggling horridly, the Phils need a guy batting 2nd who can get on base. Werth hasn't played horrible, but he's a big strike-out guy. Usually, Victorino at least gets the ball in play.

A lot of rambling, disjointed thoughts there, but it's better than writing this 25-page paper I have to write this weekend.

dola.

Forgot to comment on Blanton. I like Blanton a lot and I think he'll do well against the Rays when he pitches. Blanton is a small-ball, ground ball pitcher kind of guy, exactly the kind of guys the Rays sometimes struggle against. I think one of the reasons that the Rays hit so many homers in the first two rounds of the playoffs was that they faced a lot of fast-ball pitching types. The reason the Phillies starting pitching does not look that attractive is because we rely a lot more on ground ball pitching and good defense (especially playing in our tiny park).

The only real "fastball" starter we have is Myers. Notice how many curveballs he threw last night. Rich Dubee is one of the more underrated pitching coaches in MLB. That was a great gameplan to go after the Rays last night with.

Dear Eight Pound, Six Ounce, Newborn Baby Jesus, in your golden, fleece diapers, with your curled-up, fat, balled-up little fists pawin' at the air...I pray to you that you make any rain that could happen on Saturday October 25, 2008 go away. You see I have tickets for Game 4 and if Saturday rains out, my tickets aren't good till Monday. And that is no good because of the airline tickets, hotel, and car I rented. Thank you!

Heh. I hope you're able to use your tickets tomorrow.

Although, that would likely mean Hamels pitches in Game 4.

I want to see a Jamie Moyer no hitter. That would make my year.

If it comes to it though, you're going to call in sick and make the drive, right?

If not, you need to surrender your tickets immediately to someone maybe a little more into the Phillies.

The problem is that I have a deadline to make for next friday which will get the company $1,000,000. I already told my boss that i would miss monday...hence work all day Sunday instead. I just would rather fly (have plane tickets for sunday) then drive (i would have to drive monday).

Or, if he could take one into the 9th and have Julio Franco break it up....that would be equally as awesome.

Franco breaking it up would make my this year and next. Franco breaking it up with a HR that's caught by Rickey Henderson would make my decade.

This is correct, timely hitting is a must for the Phillies.
They will do it on familiar ground at CBP.

Tropicana Field is horrid, funky field, catwalks in play, simply put, just a big 'ol warehouse disguised as a ballpark.

I don't know why but I really feel the need to say that Dr. Sak is just the greatest person EVER on a message board. That just doesn't get said enough... :)

Hmmm, I'm guessing you're going to offer to buy his tickets should it get rained out? ;)

Just so he doesn't get stuck with them?

Thanks man! I already told my boss that I will not be in Monday if the game tonight gets rained out. I am just out airfare and a hotel room cause I'll be driving out instead of flying.

Ping: Matt Garza

Thanks for waking up the slumbering giant. :D

That sucked. They make one hell of a play and a bad call ruins it.

That call hurts even more now. Instead of 2 outs and a runner on 3rd it's 1 out, a runneron third and one run already in.

Upton baby!