Wow, that was a very good assesment of the series, thanks! Here in Philly, a lot of people would probably take your comments wrong, but I think it's pretty spot on. It's not that the Rays played THAT BAD, they just didn't play as good as they have, while the Phillies pitching was the poster child of consistency this series. Sure, they left WAY too many people stranded (if they hadn't these games could have been seriously ugly), but they did make some key plays from their "lesser" bats.

The big thing many people miss about this last game? Phillie played small ball, especially after the resumption. They didn't rely on the homer, they got people into scoring position, and then they got key singles.

The Phillies beat their 3 post season opponents like a drum - good pitching, good defense, long balls and timely hitting in the clincher. Manuel didn't try anything to screw it up.

The Rays picked a bad time to stop playing well - a lot of mistakes and poor performances by key players - bullpen couldn't do the job when they really needed to - didn't get the contributions from role players that they had at other times - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and all that

Philly pitching and power wins it for them. Why people kept discounting their chances is bewildering. They were built like an AL team, just what you want for a short series.

I think the big stage finally got to the Rays. At the plate and in the field, they played tight: committing errors and swinging at pitches they couldn't hit.

They were fine in the AL playoffs because they were at least playing teams they knew well. They certainly knew the Red Sox inside and out, and had to feel comfortable playing them -- even in the ALCS.

Then you get that much closer to the pinnacle, the lights are brighter, the stakes higher, and the scrutiny more intense. And you're playing an unfamiliar team. Most of the Rays hitters had faced Blanton before (at least a little bit) but otherwise the Phillies pitchers were new to them.

Not that the Phils don't deserve full credit for playing well. But the Rays clearly didn't do themselves any favors, and failed to play up to their level of ability.

Excellent comments by D. Pinto & above. Philly no-name players were huge. Does anyone think that Mgr Manuel pulled Pat B. for jaking it, he should have had a triple. C. Hamels thanking the Philly fans, doesn't get classier than that. Utley was fortunate, his bounce throw (not good from infield portion of field) came right up to catcher for tag. Upton going for first pitch with top notch AL base stealer Crawford on 1B was not smart.

Bartlet was nut running hard from 2nd to 3rd.Was he sent or did he go on his own?You have to hold with Crawford & Upton up next .

Why? Before the play, the odds were .526 for the home team. If he's out, the odds go to .589. If he's safe, the odds go to .338. That's like a 25% breakeven mark. It was a good risk that just didn't turn out.

Except he was out by a friggin mile -

re: jamie moyer & joe blanton success in world series

1) moyer had mixed success in the post-season. he won the clinching game of the regular season, but then lost starts vs. milw and la in the nlds and nlcs. but against tampa, with the world series on the line and something to prove, moyer found his mojo and pitched the game of a lifetime. basically, there were three ingredients to moyer's success;
a) tampa's inexperience vs. a moyer type pitcher and their larger number of lefthanded bats
b) excellent scouting reports that philly had on tampa's batters and
c) the excellent fielding that philly generally enjoyed

moyer had less success vs. la and milwaukee because those teams had seen him more, and also they were more righthanded stacked lineups which could hit curves and changeups.

finally the weather was a big advantage to moyer, cold crisp weather without rain is a big advantage to moyer. he can change speeds and also challenge hitters on the edges as well as inside, because the ball doesn't go out of the park as easily in late october in the bank.

2) joe blanton

again, i'll say this. joe blanton, after rich harden, was the a's #2 starter. on the phils, he was the phils #4 starter. if you look at joe blanton's numbers, he's an above-league average starter and doesn't walk that many. he had 140 ks and only 40 walks last year in oakland in over 200 ip.

also joe blanton was a former a's #1 pick, a college grad, a former rookie of the year, in short a moneyball kind of player. he had a lot to prove on the national stage.

and given the chance, he came up big in all three postseason series, against milw, LA and biggest of all against Tampa Bay in the World Series.

his home run in the series will be the stuff of legend forever.

not since ken holtzman of the a's has a homer been hit by a pitcher in the series back in 1974.

i agree--moyer and blanton are heroes.

but then again, so are all the phillies.

--art kyriazis, philly
WORLD CHAMPIONS 2008