Rays-Phillies Game 3: Did the Wheels Come Off Or What?
What a ridiculous ninth inning if you’re the Rays. For six-plus innings your offense is stymied by geezer Jamie Moyer, who shows his age by sticking his tongue out at you.
Then you get back into the game when your very own cartoon character, B.J. Upton, steals two bases and ties the score.
All the momentum is on your side going into the bottom of the ninth, and yet what do you do? You sit there stunned as
Howell hits someone named Eric Bruntlett. Then you hide your eyes as
Balfour hurls a wild pitch and
Navarro makes a crazy throw way wide of second.
Then Maddon says, “Walk the bases loaded with nobody out”
so that the Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz can hit a squibber to third that Longoria spazzes out on, scoring Bruntlett and leading to this.
Yes, you lost a tough one in Philly, Cinderella boys. Let’s see if you can pull yourselves together tomorrow night. Sleep well.
Confessions of a She-Fan 
Jane, I don’t know if it was because I was half-asleep, but I thought that ninth inning was incredible! I have really enjoyed watching these two teams play. Even though I’m only kinda rooting for Tampa Bay and I have no interest in Philly, I’m finding myself riveted. It’s no Sox-Yanks ALCS of ’03 and ’04, but it’s the only game in town and it’s not bad at all.
Steve T.
http://soxblog.mlblogs.com
Hey…just wanted to know, what made you root for the Rays? It took me a while to decide, because I thought it would me some form of dis-loyalty since they’re in the division. But it was just too hard not to root for them..
http://leftob.blogspot.com/
http://insidetheyankees.mlblogs.com/
Hey, Steve. I find this WS fascinating. Obviously, our teams aren’t playing and, like you, I’m sort of rooting for TB because of their Cinderella story, while only having a passing interest in the Phillies. Still, I’m really into these games. Part of it is that any baseball is better than no baseball, which will be the case soon enough. But also there’s something very refreshing about not having a rooting interest in a team and just sitting back, without being a nervous wreck, and just plain enjoying myself! What a concept!
Hey, ynks35421. A few reasons why I’m rooting for the Rays, even though I’m a Yankee fan. #1) The fact that they made it from last to first with a bunch of young players is truly an inspiring baseball story. #2) I tend to prefer American League teams over National League teams, primarily because I’m more familiar with them. #3) I like the speed and athleticism of Upton and Crawford and the home run power of Pena and Longoria. They’re just a fun team to watch. #4) When I was on the road researching my book last season, the Rays’ management couldn’t have treated me better. So I’ll always be grateful to them for that. Bottom line: I don’t feel disloyal by rooting for a team in our division because the Yankees aren’t in it. But next season? I’ll be rooting AGAINST the Rays – hard.
I am rooting for the Rays because I want there to be a clear understanding of why the AL East was so much more difficult than any other division. I believe the Phillies would have finished in fourth had they played in our division.
http://statisticianmagician.mlblogs.com/
Good point. The AL East is tougher than any division in either league. Next year we’ll have to contend with the Rays, Red Sox and Jays (especially if they manage to hang onto Burnett).
Moyer looks like he might have doubled for Gene Simmons in the 70’s.
I with you on rooting for the Rays, even though they are in the Jays division as well. My reason is that the Rays dominated the Jays this year, and they really killed our playoff hopes with their breakout season.
I want them to prove to the rest of the league, what kind of division the A.L. East was this year. There were 4 very strong teams in the A.L. East this year, they all could have been in the playoffs.
http://homerfoodandhistory.mlblogs.com/
Joe Buck made the Moyer/Simmons comparison last night, Jeremy! And yes, the AL East is brutal, so since the Rays managed to stay #1 in the division they should win the WS. I’m still picking them.
What annoys me is that people will come up to me and say ‘hahaha Yankees suck’
Meanwhile, they had the 7th best record in MLB, and we did that while being in the toughest division in MLB. So we weren’t nearly as bad as we were made out to be.
Here’s what you tell those Yankees bashers: We made it to the postseason for 13 straight years. Has any other team done that? No. So we skipped a year. So what. We’ll be back!