2008 World Series Preview – Rays v. Phillies

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Philadelphia Phillies

Wednesday night marks game one of the 2008 World Series. This year, the fall classic features the upstart Tampa Bay Rays and my beloved Philadelphia Phillies.

It has been almost 15 years to the night since the Phillies last appeared in the World Series. On October 23rd of 1993, Joe Carter hit a Mitch Williams pitch over the left-field fence to give the Blue Jays a 4-2 series victory and send Philadelphia into a championship tailspin. Since that night, the Flyers were swept in the 1997 Stanley Cup finals, the Sixers dropped in five games to the Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals, and the Eagles lost the Super Bowl in 2005 to the New England Patriots.

Philly teams have also had trouble with Tampa Bay teams as of late. In the last game at Veterans Stadium, the Eagles lost the 2003 NFC Championship Game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the first game at Lincoln Financial Field in 2003 to the Buccaneers and the 2004 NHL Eastern Conference Final to the Lightning in seven games.

The Rays are an astounding story. This is the franchise’s eleventh season in baseball. During the previous ten years of existence, the Rays finished in fourth place once and last the other nine years. Their best season record until this year was 70-91, a record which they shattered this year by going 97-65. While the Rays story is terrific, the club does have starts that are capable of producing for a long time to come.

Rookie third-baseman Evan Longoria hit .272 with 27 home runs and 85 RBI, first-baseman Carlos Pena hit .247 with 31 bombs and 102 RBI’s. Center-fielder B.J. Upton, despite hitting only nine home runs during the season, has 7 in the playoffs and needs one more to tie the all-time postseason record. Finally, Carl Crawford stole 25 bases during the regular season, which was second to only Upton on the team, who had 44 swipes.

On the mound, the Rays feature Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Matt Garza. The left-handed Kazmir, who went 12-8 with a 3.49 ERA in 27 starts. He does not give up many home runs, strikes out around 7.5 per game, is great at home (Tampa won 14 of his 16 starts there) and is 1-0 lifetime against the Phils. The game two starter for Tampa will be James Shields, who despite having a better record than Kazmir (14-8), had an ERA slightly higher at 3.56. Shields will not strike out as many hitters at Kazmir, and did give up one more home run on the season. The Phllies can look to get after Shields, as he gives up more hits to lefties than he does righties. Garza, the teams announced game three starter, finished the season 11-9 with a low strikeout total and with a higher ERA at night, on the road and outdoors, all which will apply to game three. Out of the bullpen, the Rays have the young flamethrower in first round pick David Price, who wasn’t even playing professional baseball at the beginning of this year. Price got the final four outs in the ALCS against the Red Sox.

The Phillies have gotten great pitching so far this postseason, especially from Cole Hamels and Brett Myers.

Hamels, who has won all three of his postseason starts thus far, has held hitters to a .173 average. Myers has dome more of the talking with his bat. A man who had just four hits all season has three in the playoffs and his four RBI’s give him more playoff RBI since 2006 than the likes of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Mysers will have to use the arm in this series though, as both of his starts will be in Tampa is he makes two.

We all know about the Phillies bats, or we did know. It seems like this team hasn’t hit since the week before Father’s Day, when they hung 20 runs on the Cardinals in St. Louis. Ryan Howard led the league in home runs and RBI, but did so with a .251 average and 199 strikeouts. Pat Burrell and Chase Utley also hit well throughout the season, each totaling over 30 home runs. As a team in the postseason, the Phillies have hit .259 compared to the Rays average of .268. The Phillies ERA in the playoffs was 3.19 compard to the Rays’ mark of 3.52. The Rays have walked ten more batters than the Phillies, which could end up being a big stat in this series if players like Burrell and Feliz can hit.

So what is the prediction? Well, I nailed the divisional series and I underestimated the Phillies in the league championship series. As much as I want the Phillies to win this, I want them to do it it most amazing fashion. Phillies in five, in Philadelphia in front of the frontrunners, er, fans.