World Series - Intermission

I woke up to this morning to find myself stranded in Philadelphia in the bottom of the sixth inning in game 5 of the World Series. I think it would be absolutely awesome if the players were forced to get going on the game at any minute. Meaning, that they would have to sleep at the park, keep entertained, and basically wait for a break in the weather to start the game. This could happen at 2 in the afternoon, or 3 in the morning. However, we all know that this isn't the case. It would appear that the longest inning in World Series history will probably come to a close around 5:30 PST on Wednesday.

How are my predictions holding up you say? Absolutely awful. Obviously. At least let me state my defense as to why the Tampa Bay Rays may throw away one of the greatest turn around stories in Major League Baseball.

It all starts with Scott Kazmir. The guy in the post season is not the same player we have seen for most of the season. This is not a good thing. When one of your best pitchers suddenly becomes another player in the most important series of the year, there could be trouble. And what do you know? That's exactly where the Rays find themselves.

Offense. Where is it? Probably somewhere in between Carl Crawford going deep and B.J. Upton stealing bases. The Rays simply aren't hitting. The thing is, are the Phillies' pitchers even that good? Yes, I'm talking about everyone OTHER than Cole Hamels. Kentucky Joe looked like one of the best pitchers in the game Sunday night. I guess it helps when you hit a home run to help your own cause. However way you look at it, the Rays are getting absolutely DEALT when it comes to pitching. A good question would be to ask Evan Longoria how many times he would like to strikeout this series (9 times in 4 games).

Defense. Also, where is it? It was summed up when Navarro threw down to second in the bottom of the ninth of game 3. Was it necessary? No. Was hitting Bruntlett needed? No. But it happened. So deal with it. Yes, there was a passed ball, so deal with it. I just don't see why a throw down to second was necessary. Of course we know what followed. Intentional walk to the flyin' Hawaiian, followed by another to Greg Dobbs, and a Carlos Ruiz chopper down third with an infield of 5 players. Game 3 should have belonged to the Rays.

Can the Rays do it?

Wow, good question Joel. I'm very, very skeptic. However, am I still believing that they can?  Yes. Because if you know baseball, you know anything can happen.

How do they do it?

Obvious reasons. They have to get a solid outing of whomever comes out of the gate for them on the bump in the bottom of the 6th. They need to score immediately in the top of the 7th. If they can do this, they can build enough hope in their travels back to St. Petersburg. Having Evan Longoria see live pitching in this intermission is a MUST. The guy has to get his eye back. He looks like a fool up there. Iwamura needs to quit booting balls. There's a ton of things they need to do.  But for one, they need to somehow find the team that won the A.L. East without a problem.

Whenever we get this thing going again, that is.