TB down to last Ray of hope
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Photo gallery: World Series Game 4 |
By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service
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PHILADELPHIA — Suddenly, the end seems near. The Tampa Bay Rays are running out of karma, not to mention games, and if they have any magic left, it'd better be good and it'd better be now.
A few last details to clear up in the World Series — where the Phillies lead 3-1 after yesterday's 10-2 breeze — and Philadelphia can savor a championship, instead of mourning all those that got away.
That might be disorienting. They're much more accustomed to finding goats around here than good seats for the victory parade.
First, of course, the Rays need one last push. Bring in the executioner.
Cole Hamels is 24 and doesn't look scary enough to go trick or treating for Halloween. But he has been a ruthless assassin of hitters at every turn of the postseason. Today, he can send the Rays fairy tale of 2008 into history — cowbells and all.
"We've got to get better ... fast," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said.
Hamels is 4-0 in the postseason, having given up five runs in 29 innings. He does that one more time, and he owns this October for keeps.
"Cole Hamels goes out there, and you can tell, he can smell a win," manager Charlie Manuel was saying yesterday.
But can't they all smell it now in neurotic, anxious, long-suffering Philadelphia?
Since an NBA title 25 years ago, this city has gone through 98 combined seasons of professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey without a championship. Seven times, Philly teams lost in the finals.
But this tormented psyche can be soothed with one last Hamels gem.
And there are ample signs in a very odd World Series that the battery is dying on the Rays' mojo. What's it tell us when:
Right. Suddenly, fate doesn't love the Rays anymore.
Bringing all these loose ends together for an orderly result has been Philadelphia's pitchers. The hitting and umpiring have not always been World Series caliber these past days. But most of the Phillies arms have been.
So, are the police dogs ready?
The only championship for the Phillies in more than a century of futility was 1980, when Philadelphia police ringed Veterans Stadium with German shepherds and horses as a warning to any celebrants not to even think of storming the field.
That hasn't been a problem lately, though.
The Rays often talk about overcoming adversity, and why not, when they arrived here from the baseball wilderness?
"We've been written off plenty of times," Longoria said.
But trailing 3-1 on the road in the World Series is very heavy lifting. They must beat the Philadelphia ace in his own house, where the Phillies are 6-0 this postseason, and where Maddon mentioned yesterday how some of the fans had been throwing mustard packets at his granddaughter.
"You're the underdog and it kind of feels like everyone's against you," said Scott Kazmir, the pitcher who will face Hamels. "So you want to go out there and prove everyone wrong. It gives you that little chip on your shoulder."
The Rays need any help they can get. The Phillies are a game away, and even the dogs seem excited in Philadelphia.
Contact Mike Lopresti at mlopresti@gns.gannett.com.
