Somehow, it just made sense. In a city that embraces a flawed symbol such as the Liberty Bell, the Philadelphia Phillies won a championship Wednesday night in a game that had a large and noticeable fracture right in the middle of it. Over time, the epic rain delay that stretched the game for 45 extra hours may very well grow to be as endearing a quirk as that famous Liberty Bell crack, at least for Phillies fans.
Monday night's game appeared to be much like any other potential World Series-clinching contest at home. Crowd a-buzzing, Shane Victorino hit a 2-RBI single early to go ahead and you could sense the fans start to count down the outs in their heads, even with 24 of them still left to count.
The rain began to fall in the third inning. That was okay, the pre-game forecast called for a light rain at some point. Maybe a little rain might even add to the image and the stories for years to come. Oh, how right they were.
Cole Hamels continued to pitch brilliantly, and better yet, he buzzed through innings at a surprising rate. Surely, this was going to be the night.
When the 0-fer brothers, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, connected in the fourth inning via a double and a single to cut the lead to 2-1, the fans suddenly had to come back down to earth and realized this wouldn't be easy.
By the fifth inning, the rain had created plays like the pop up that made Jimmy Rollins do everything but figure eights running around in a vain attempt to make the catch. (I thought umpire Tim Tschida said later on that they had prevented the game from becoming comical. Did he see this play?) And yet the Phillies, poised to wear the championship crown, responded as such. Chase Utley fielded a ground ball and quickly tagged runner Rocco Baldelli passing by a moment later and then fired to first for a double play. Yeah, this team was ready.
Mother nature, however, was not. Commercial breaks between innings begat more commercial breaks as frantic attempts to clean and dry up the field took place again and again through the fifth and sixth. And yet Hamels continued to make short work of the Rays.
That is until the sixth, when a 2-out B.J. Upton ground ball that would have normally been chewed up by shortstop Jimmy Rollins and spat out perfectly to first base went off the heel of his glove as he was moving to his left. On a dry field, perhaps that doesn't happen. Upton then decided he was going to cross the moat that had formed on the basepaths and steal second base anyway. This proved to be frighteningly easy.
While speculation began that the game might be called and the Phillies could possibly win a shortened series-clincher (thankfully, the Commissioner made it clear there was no way that was going to happen), Carlos Pena lined an RBI single into left that, for that moment, saved the season in the minds of the Rays players. Pena and Upton certainly celebrated the moment as if they had just tied it up in the ninth rather than the sixth.
Finally, the tarp came out, and the debacle, the second-guessing, and the panicking began to set in. What in the name of Billy Penn was going on here? Baseball fans were forced to learn the unique skill of holding one's breath underwater for 45 hours at a time. It wasn't until 8:37 PM EST Wednesday night that an entire city finally came up for air.
Both the Phillies and Rays were expected to hit the ground running in a bizarre three-and-a-half inning contest that better befitted a backyard wiffle ball game format than the finale of the World Series. Sure enough, both teams did just that. With all the reliever and pinch-hitter matchups this invited, they could have just as easily put a table at home plate and had the fans watch managers Jerry Manuel and Joe Maddon play chess for the trophy.
Manuel appeared to put the Rays in check when he inserted Geoff Jenkins in the pitcher's spot to lead off the "game" against Grant Balfour. Jenkins' double was followed by a sac bunt and a bloop single that fell through a cradle in second baseman Akinori Iwamura's arms as he sprinted away from home. Balfour was beaten and left shortly. Advantage Phillies, 3-2.
Manuel chose reliever Ryan Madsen to pitch the 7th, which became a mistake when Rocco Baldelli tied the game with one swing, getting around on an inside fastball to tie the game right back up.
By this point, Game 5, Act II had taken on a different pace and tone than Act I. Hitters dominated from the get-go a game that had previously been a pitcher's duel on Monday night. Cole Hamels had to look on in frustration knowing he was somehow forced out of the clinching game after only having thrown 75 pitches through six innings.
Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell was now the last regular player on either side to be hitless for the series. Pat the Bat finally joined the party leading off the bottom of the seventh with a blast that came within a two-foot screen extension of being a home run. He settled for a double that Victorino would have gladly had an inside-the-park home run on. This was why Phillies fans had dubbed him Pat the Bat in the first place.
This would eventually make a hero out of Pedro Feliz, who came up with the run setup by Burrell on third and one out. Feliz managed to line one back through the box against nasty reliever Chad Bradford, whose submarine delivery comes from so far down under, his knuckles have been known to scratch the mound on occasion. The Phillies led again, and now needed only six outs.
After reliever J.C. Romero escaped the eighth thanks to a double play, closer Brad Lidge took the mound in the ninth with that same 4-3 lead, in pursuit of the title, as well as the perfect closer's season. Dioner Navarro's one-out broken bat looper into right, followed by a Fernando Perez (Navarro's speedier replacement) steal of second base had many Phillies fans dreading the worst again.
Pinch-hitter Ben Zobrist followed by screaming a line-drive to right that was fortunate it didn't give 73-year-old Phillies announcing legend Harry Kalas a heart attack before landing in the glove of well-positioned right fielder Jayson Werth. Lidge was then able to get 2 strikes on pinch-hitter Eric Hinske before finishing him off with his trademark sinker. The feeble swing and miss ensured nothing short of bedlam in downtown Philadelphia. The 2008 Phillies had proven to be the miracle pill to cure the city's 25-year migraine headache.
The upcoming forecast for the City of Brotherly Love in the foreseeable future? 100% chance of reign.
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