Wednesday Major League Capsule.
PHILADELPHIA 4, TAMPA BAY 3

PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia Phillies emerged from two days of rain and brought sunshine to the City of Brotherly Love.

Jayson Werth and Pedro Feliz each drove in a run in the resumption of Game Five to lift the Phillies to a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, clinching their first World Series title since 1980 and the second in franchise history.

J.C. Romero (2-0) picked up the win and Brad Lidge completed his perfect season with a scoreless ninth for Philadelphia, which took the series, four games to one.

With the game knotted at 2-2 in the middle of the sixth inning on Monday as rain poured onto the field and showed no signs of letting up, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig decided to suspend the game until the weather cleared.

The conditions finally became playable on Wednesday, and the Phillies showed absolutely no rust.

Much was made after Monday night about who Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel would choose as his pinch hitter to lead off the bottom of the sixth, with the pitchers spot in the batting order due up. Geoff Jenkins, Greg Dobbs and Matt Stairs each bat lefthanded and could have been deployed in that situation against Grant Balfour.

Jenkins was the least likely of the bunch, having accumulated just three at-bats – no hits – so far in the postseason after appearing in only seven games in September. But Jenkins proved to be the perfect choice against Balfour, a noted fastball pitcher who reaches the high 90s and has thrown very few breaking balls in the playoffs.

The one thing Jenkins always has been able to do is turn around on a fastball, and after seeing five of them while working the count to 3-2, he took the sixth and planted it off the wall in right-center field for a leadoff double. He advanced to third on Jimmy Rollins sacrifice and scored when second baseman Akinori Iwamura could not make a play on Werths pop-up to shallow center.

The excitement was short-lived, however, when Rocco Baldelli came up with one out in the seventh and deposited the first pitch from Ryan Madson over the left field wall to knot the game at 3-3.

Tampa Bay threatened to take the lead when Iwamura sent a grounder up the middle with two outs and Jason Bartlett on second. But second baseman Chase Utley, who was shading Iwamura to pull, raced up the middle, fielded the ball and, realizing he would not be able to get the runner at first, fired home to nail Bartlett for the final out of the frame.

The Phillies carried the momentum from Utleys play into the bottom half.

Pat Burrell led off with a double off J.P. Howell (0-2) before leaving for pinch runner Eric Bruntlett, who moved to third on Shane Victorinos groundout. Feliz followed with a single off righthander Chad Bradford to push across what proved to be the winning run.

Lidge allowed a broken-bat single to Dioner Navarro with one out in the ninth, and pinch runner Fernando Perez put the tying run on second with a stolen base before pinch hitter Ben Zobrist lined out to right for the second out. The Rays went to another pinch hitter, Eric Hinske, with their final chance, but Lidge struck him out on a nasty changeup to set off a raucous celebration.

This is the first major sports championship for the city of Philadelphia since the NBAs 76ers captured a title in 1983.

Cole Hamels, who pitched the first six innings – allowing two runs and five hits while striking out three – on Monday and earned a win in Game One, was named the World Series MVP.

It was Victorinos two-run single in the first that put the Phillies on the board on Monday, with RBI hits by Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena accounting for the Rays runs.

Posted on October 30th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: MLB Baseball News