Line Drive in the Paper Lifts Phils

It wasn't pretty, but the Phillies will take it. Tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies didn't hit one ball out of the infield - actually they only put one ball into play - in scoring the winning run to take a 2 games to 1 advantage in the World Series. Last night's game ended about 1:47 a.m. EDT after a one hour-thirty one minute rain delay caused the first pitch to be thrown at 10:14 p.m., the latest start in World Series history.

The Rays had rallied from a 4-1 deficit, tying the game with a run in the eighth inning. But Rays reliver J.P. Howell hit Eric Bruntlett to start the home half of the ninth inning. Grant Balfour replaced Howell, and with Shane Victorino batting, immediately threw a wild pitch. Catcher Dioner Navarro quickly retrieved the ball and fired to second to try to gun down Bruntlett, but his throw sailed wide to the right side of second base and into center field, allowing Bruntlett to reach third base. Victorino was intentionally walked and Joe Maddon came out to discuss strategy with his pitcher and infielders.

Those infielders were increased by one when right fielder Ben Zobrist, a natural infielder, moved behind second base to give the Rays a 5-man infield. An intentional walk to Gary Dobbs loaded the bases for catcher Carlos Ruiz. With the infield and outfield playing in, Ruiz chopped a high Balfour fastball that a charging Evan Longoria could only whip home with an underhand, off-balance throw. The ball sailed high and wide and the Phillies had themselves a victory.

Though the game came down to the bottom of the ninth Jamie Moyer was the story of this game. The 45-yr old had struggled in his first two post-season starts, allowing 8 runs in 5.1 innings pitched. But his manager Charlie Manuel stuck by him, saying in his Friday news conference that Moyer had earned his World Series start. Now he's earned a second one, which would be a deciding seventh game if necessary.

Moyer pitch into the seventh inning, leaving with a 4-2 lead and one out. A third run was charged to him after an inherited runners scored on a ground out, but this was clearly Moyer's night. He kept the Rays off balance with his mixture of slow, slower, and slowest pitches. He quickly gave up a 1-0 lead in the second inning and Phillies fans had to be concerned. But after Ruiz's solo home run off Matt Garza in the bottom of the second gave the Phillies the lead back, Moyer took control. He allowed just two more hits through the sixth inning.

Moyer's counterpart, Garza, had been dominant in the first two rounds of the post-season, but struggled last night. Maddon had to come out in the first inning to settle him down after allowing a lead off single to Jimmy Rollins, a walk to Jayson Werth, and a wild pitch that moved both runners into scoring position. He allowed just one run, but was tagged for three solo home runs on the night.

Meanwhile the Phillies extended their lead when their two big men, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard hit back to back home runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 4-1 lead. The Rays big men continued not to deliver. Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, who has to endure the asinine chant of "Eva" from the Phillies faithful, both went hitless last night and are hitless for the series. Their teammates did pick them up last night though.

Carl Crawford began the seventh with a bunt single and Navarro followed with a double to left to bring the tying run to the plate. The Rays seem to be specializing on RBI ground outs in the series and that trend continued when Gabe Gross' bouncer to Howard to cut the lead to 4-2 and moved Navarro to third. Chad Durbin replaced Moyer and got Jason Bartlett to bounce into another run scoring ground out that made it a 4-3 game, but prevented a bigger inning.

In the eighth, with Ryan Madson on the mound, B.J. Upton stroked a lead off single and stole second base with one away. The Rays aggressive play on the basepaths paid off when Upton stole third and scored on Ruiz's throwing error. But Ruiz would have the last laugh.


News and Notes

Pena and Longoria are now a combined 0-22 in the series.

Ruiz's game winner made the Phillies 2-33 with runners in scoring position.

Steve Carlton threw out the first pitch, which was made ironic since Moyer beat him for his major league win in 1986.

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Live and Die in LA

Dodgers Prepare to Batten Down the Hatches.

Joe Torre knows what pressure situations are like. He was in plenty of them in New York, going to battle in the playoffs for 12 straight seasons. One of Torre's worst times came in the 2004 ALCS when the Yankees blew a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox and saw Boston go on to end their 86-year world championship drought. Now Torre is on the other side of the ledger.

With Philadelphia's 8-5 win on Tuesday, the Phillies took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of seven NLCS series. Of course a Dodger win tonight could turn the momentum in the completely opposite direction. Torre has experience in this situation as well. Down 2-0 to the Braves in the 1996 World Series, the Yankees won three straight games on the road before wrapping up the series at home in game 6.

Torre will have to make better decisions tonight though then he did in game 2. Already trailing 4-2, Torre rolled the dice by sending starter Chad Billingsley back out to start the third inning. The move backfired and the Phillies put four more runs on the board and put the game virtually out of reach.

Hiroki Kuroda gets the call for LA tonight. The Japanese native was 9-10, 3.73 in the regular season and finished off the Cubs in game 3 of the NLDS with 6.1 scoreless innings. Kuroda has allowed just two earned runs in 13 career innings against the Phillies, going 1-0, 1.38 in two starts.

The Phillies will counter with oldest player in Major League Baseball, 45-year old Jamie Moyer. The soon to be 46-year old, went 16-7, 3.71 during the regular season, but took the lone Philly loss to Milwaukee. He allowed two earned runs in four innings and walked three batters. Moyer is just 3-4, 4.80 in 10 career starts against the Dodgers.

The Phillies have the two games to none lead despite the lack of production from potential NL MVP Ryan Howard. The big first baseman is 0-8 in the series and just 2-19 in the post-season.

Manny Ramirez continues to rake for the Dodgers. He's 3-8 in the first two games with a home run and four RBI. The performance comes on the heels of the NLDS where hit .500 (5-10) with a pair of home runs three RBI. He also drew four walks.

"Michael Kay is bashing Torre on the radio today..."

Just a little spoof of the TMKS theme song. For some reason Michael Kay continues to rant against Torre (he blasted for weeks after turning down the Yankees contract offer last off-season), unable, or unwilling, to understand why callers are rooting for Torre in the post-season.

He quickly dismisses any talk that the Yankees disgraced Torre with their offer and continues to point out that Torre is no saint. Okay, Michael...what is it that Torre did to you? Wouldn't come on your radio show (he had a deal with WFAN), blew you off your interviews, kicked your cat? What?

Kay also couldn't understand how fans would root for Torre's Dodgers if they played in the World Series against the Red Sox. "The Red Sox are an American League team. If you root for the Yankees, you're an American League fan. How can you not root for the American League? On top of that how can you root for the Dodgers?"

We paraphrased a bit, but that is the basic lo-down. Kay can't understand that while those listeners who are contemporaries, myself included, still hate the Dodgers (those Garvey-Lopes-Sutton teams in particular), we hate the Red Sox right now a whole lot more. Even when Don La Greca pointed out that the Red Sox would be building a potential dynasty with three championships in five seasons, Kay still didn't get it. "What's the difference? The curse is dead!"

Some people just don't get it, even when they're smacked upside the head with it.

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The Pennant Race - 9/1

Labor Day is here, which means there's a month of baseball season left and Jerry Lewis is on the tube. With the exception of the AL West, and maybe the NL Central, all the divisional and wildcard races are up for grabs.

AL East

The Rays pounded the Orioles 10-4 on Sunday, to finish off a three game sweep in which they scored 34 runs. The victory moved them 5.5 games ahead of the Red Sox, who lost the finale of their three game series with the White Sox, 4-2.

AL Central

The White Sox win kept them a half-game ahead of the Twins in the central standings. Gavin Floyd picked up his 15th win and Jim Thome hit career home run number 536 to tie him with Mickey Mantle for 14th place on the all-time list.

In addition to being within striking distance of Chicago, the Twins moved to 2.5 back of the Red Sox in the wildcard race, with a 12-4 thumping of the A's. Justin Morneau homered and knocked in four runs, giving him 108 RBI entering September.

NL East

The Mets maintained their one game lead on the Phillies, by beating the Marlins 6-2 on Sunday. Carlos Beltran, who hit the game winning grand slam on Friday, David Wright, and Nick Evans each homered to help Pedro Martinez to pick up career win number 214.

The Phillies beat the Cubs 5-3 to gain a split of the four game series, after losing the first two. Jayson Werth homered for the third time in two games and Jamie Moyer won his 12th game. It was the 242nd win of Moyer's 22-year career. Remarkably, he only won 72 games in his first nine seasons.

NL Central

The Cubs lead in the division was reduced to 4.5 games due to the continuing heroics of the Brewers' CC Sabathia. The big man tossed a controversial 1-hit complete game shutout over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The play in question was the lone hit of the game. The Pirates' Andy LaRoche hit a tapper to the side of the mound that Sabathia bare handed and dropped. Had he picked the ball cleanly, he would have gotten LaRoche easily at first. But the official scorer ruled it an error. It would turn out to be the lone Pittsburgh hit. After the game, manager Ned Yost and Sabathia's teammates were clearly upset, and there was a plan (naive at best) to appeal to the league to have the call overruled.

The Brewers maintained a 4.5 game lead over the Phillies in the wildcard, while the Cardinals dropped to 6.5 back with a 3-0 loss to the Astros.


NL West

The Dodgers took two of three from the Diamondbacks to get back within 2.5 of Arizona in the west. LA dominated both wins, 6-2 on Saturday, and 8-1 on Sunday, with plenty of hitting and pitching. Derek Lowe threw six scoreless innings on Sunday night baseball, to beat Brandon Webb, who was walloped for the second straight time out in his attempt to win his 20th game.


Other News

The Indians, feel good about themselves, 10-game winning streak came to an abrupt end as they were swept by the Mariners in three straight.

The Padres Jake Peavy tossed a gem on Sunday (8 IP 5 H 0 R 13 K) only to see Trevor Hoffman blow the lead in the ninth. Hoffman then got the win when Luis Rodriguez drove in the game winner in the bottom of the ninth.

The Dodgers' Jeff Kent could be done for the season after it was announced he will undergo knee surgery to repair torn cartilage.

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Around the Horn - 7/31

The Phillies and Mets continue to play leap frog in the NL East. The Phils took a half game lead last night with an 8-5 win over the Nationals. Chase Utley and Shane Victorino both went deep to help Jamie Moyer pick up his 240th win, 12th best (tied with Frank Tanana) among left-handers.

The Mets meanwhile couldn't hold an early lead and red hot Mike Pelfrey was cooled off by the Marlins 7-5. The Marlins sit just 1.5 games back.

Garret Anderson put up a 4-hit, 4 RBI night as the Angels beat the Red Sox 9-2. It was LA's second three game sweep of the Red Sox this month. The Rays gained a game on Boston with a 3-2 win over the Blue Jays.

Colorado still can't make up its collective mind as to buy or sell today. Had they lost three straight to the Pirates they probably would have been sellers. But the Rockies snapped the 2-game losing streak last night, 7-4, as Aaron Cook won his 14th game.

Dan Haren won his 11th game of the season in the Diamondbacks 7-3 win over the Padres. That kept them one game ahead of the Dodgers, who got a complete game shutout from Chad Billingsley in a 4-0 win over the Giants.

The Diamondbacks have to wonder what their offense would be like had they kept Carlos Quentin. The White Sox outfielder continued his breakout season with his 28th home run and drove in 4 runs in the Chisox 8-3 win over the Twins. Quentin has 83 RBI for the season.

The Cubs beat the Brewers for the third straight night, this time 7-2, behind a strong outing by Ryan Dempster, who picked up his 12th win. The Brewers will try to salvage the finale of the series, but they're up against Rich Harden.

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Hank Offers a Retraction

Hank Steinbrenner definitely separated himself from his father with his statements to Anthony Riebber of Newsday about prior statements concerning Mike Mussina ("just needs to learn how to pitch like Jamie Moyer."). When asked if he served as motivation for Mussina's turn around, Boss Jr. not only denied it, but, in essence, apologized for his earlier comments.

"I'm not going to take credit for that," Steinbrenner said in a telephone interview Sunday morning. "He's smart enough to figure that stuff out himself. He's been playing baseball a long time."

"I don't think it was necessary for me to say anything, truthfully, at that point," he said. "He was going to figure it out himself. He's the ultimate pro veteran and a very smart guy. He made the changes he thought he had to make. He's still him, though. It's still his pitches. He's throwing them differently, different speeds. He's approaching it different, but he figured out what he had to do and he did it. He's done it."

Steinbrenner did take exception at remarks deriding him for not knowing that one pitcher was left-handed and one was right-handed.

Said Steinbrenner: "Everybody was talking about, 'Well, he didn't realize he was a righty and Moyer's a lefty.' I realized. I've been watching both of them for freaking 15-20 years. The fact is that I was talking about a style of pitching and it doesn't matter what hand you throw with."

Now if would only learn to be quiet in the first place.

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Around the Horn - 5/6

Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis, and David Ortiz each homered as the Red Sox doubled up the Tigers, 6-3. Lowell's was his first blast of the year as well as his first RBI. It was an odd night for Dice-K (5-0) who allowed only 2 hits over 5 innings, but walked 8. It was the 4th straight win the Sox while the Tigers dropped their 4th straight.

Dustin McGowan and Javier Vazquez settled into a good pitcher's duel last night in the Blue Jays 1-0 win over the White Sox. A Matt Stairs home run in the 7th inning was the game's lone run as closer B.J. Ryan escaped a bases loaded jam in the 9th to preserve the victory for McGowan.

The Angels and Royals also hooked up in a pitcher's duel between the rejuvenated Ervin Santana and veteran Brett Tomko. Tomko only allowed 2 hits in 7 innings, but wouldn't be around for the finish. The Angels scored 4 times in the 9th with Garrett Anderson and Brandon Wood each hitting home runs. Santana went the distance on 97 pitches, allowing just 4 hits, while issuing no walks, and striking out 9.

Emil Brown singled in the game winner in the bottom of the 10th for Oakland as the A's beat the Orioles 2-1. The O's had tied the game in the 9th off of closer Huston Street after starter Dana Eveland (7 IP) and the A's set up men blanked the O's for the first 8 innings.

The Mariners snapped a 5-game losing streak when they beat the Rangers 7-3 last night. Wladimir Balentien belted a 3-run home run and Richie Sexson added a solo shot to back the quality start of Jarrod Washburn.

Johnny Cueto won his first game since April 3rd when the Reds beat the Cubs 5-3. Cueto struck out 8 in 6 innings and Adam Dunn belted a tape measure 2-run home run. Cubs rookie standout Geovany Soto continues to open eyes. He homered as part of a 3-3 day and is hitting .352.

The Dodgers Rafael Furcal homered off the Mets Oliver Perez to start the bottom of the 1st inning and it was all down hill for Perez after that. Blake DeWitt hit his first major league home run and Matt Kemp also went deep against Perez, who had his 3rd bad start in a row (and 4 out of 5). Chad Billingsley picked up the win in the Dodgers 5-1 victory.

The Cardinals blew 3 leads before Rick Ankiel's RBI ground out in the 9th finally beat the Rockies 6-5. Jason Isringhausen picked up his 11th save for the Cards who are now 21-12.

The Phillies rolled over the Diamondbacks 11-4 as Jamie Moyer beat AZ with his arm and his bat. Moyer became the 3rd pitcher in MLB history to record a multi-hit game at age 45 or over. The game was a contrast in styles and age, as Moyer, making his 558th appearance hit 78 mph for much of the night, while 23-yr old DBacks rookie Max Schuerzer, who threw as hard as 98 mph on the night, made his major league debut.

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