Staff Blog
Game One Preview, Last Call Rounds
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| BS&S |
Tonight, at 8:22 p.m., every Phillie except for So Taguchi, Pedro Feliz, and Scott Eyre will begin the new biggest game of their life. It’ll be as big of a game as most of us have watched too, and walking around Philly you can almost feel the nervousness, and depending on the result tonight tomorrow is either going to feel like a funeral or spring break. Let’s get right to it.
The Pitchers: Here is what Joe Sheehan wrote today in SI:
the Phillies cannot win the World Series unless they win tonight’s game.
and, while we’ll all deny it tomorrow if the Phils do lose, he’s right. Cole Hamels is the best starter in the series, but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best starters all probably wear Navy and Columbia blue. He’s been the MVP of the postseason, but for the Phillies to win he may have to be the MVP of this series as well. That starts tonight.
He’ll face Scott Kazmir, the one-time Mets superprospect, who, like Hamels, is young, live, lefty arm. Also like Hamels he can pitch a little bit – he led the AL in strikeouts last year, and at 24 has an all-star game behind him. Unlike Hamels he’s been roughed up a bit in these playoffs. The Phillies need to get to him before he gets into his groove.
The Players: All season long the players have been saying that as Jimmy goes, so goes the team. You heard em, MVP, now if your time to frontrun.
For the Rays, their player is a pitcher as well. David Price, he of one major league save, and one game-seven, world-champion-beating, four-out save, can either be the difference or a non-factor. If the Phillies can get to him early it’ll be curtins for the rookie in big spots, if they can’t, he could be this years’ K-Rod.
The Chase: The last five World Series have been won by the Game One victor, and all-time, the winner of the first game is 63-40 in the Series. The Rays could come back from a game one loss, the Phillies may not be able to.
The Links:
Weitzel turns back the clock on Beerleaguer
We Should Be GMs drops this gem:
Favorite Baseball Team
Philly – The Phillies.
[snip]
Tampa – The Yankees.
Let’s do this.
