Seriously, what to make of the fact that in a blog post two days ago I offered Ryan Howard several ways for busting out of his slump. I guess one of them worked, because look at him.

He’s dancing with joy over having smacked two homers and driven in five runs. This guy couldn’t buy a hit and now he’s a slugger again. Strange, yes?

And then there’s the case of

Joe Blanton – a mediocre pitcher who, for no apparent reason, chose tonight to impersonate Cy Young. He even went deep! How do you figure?

There were plenty of other oddities:

* the normally capable Iwamura making two errors

* the much-heralded Rays relievers serving up bombs

* the sizzling hot bats of Longoria and Pena turning to icecubes.

Oh, and how about the National Anthem?

Did Patti Labelle TRY to sound like a cat in heat?

It was such a strange game, from start to finish, and just goes to prove that those of us who predicted Tampa Bay would win the World Series might be dead wrong. I mean, Hamels vs. Kazmir tomorrow night at Citizens Bank Park? Could spell The End for the Cinderfellas.

But the strangest part of all? When Fox’s Ken Rosenthal brought us breaking news from Mrs. Jamie Moyer.

According to Karen Moyer, Jamie pitched last night’s game despite a bout of stomach flu. “He was sweating so badly I had to keep changing the sheets and pillowcases on the bed,” she confided to Ken, who then passed this crucial tidbit on to us, along with other details of Moyer’s unfortunate symptoms.

Memo to Fox: There IS such a thing as too much information.