There was supposed to be the crowning of a champion on Monday night in Philly, but it turned into a monsoon and one of the strangest turn of events you’ll ever see in a sporting event. Game 5 of the World Series has been suspended and will be resumed…when? Nobody knows for sure.
Now, there will obviously be a ton of discussion today concerning how the situation was handled by the umpires and Bud Selig. That’s a debate that could go on endlessly and not really get anywhere. Should the game have been called a half-inning or full inning earlier? Probably. Did the Phillies get the short-end of the stick by having to pitch and play defense in that top of the 6th inning? Maybe. People will claim that the league wanted the game to be tied or that there was some other conspiracy involved. That’s nonsense.
The bottom line is this: the situation is over and it’s not going to be changed. The run that the Rays scored in the 6th is not going to be taken off the scoreboard. It wasn’t ideal for Cole Hamels to have to pitch in those conditions, but the Rays were hitting and running in the same conditions. Again, which team did that hurt more? Probably the team that is pitching and trying to play defense, but now is not the time to start whining and looking for excuses. These kinds of things happen in baseball all the time, not in the World Series, but they happen. It’s all part of the game.
Really, this game should have never been started last night, but as Selig made very clear in his “Don’t blame me!” press conference, there was agreement from the Rays, the Phillies, and the umpires that the game should be played. So maybe group-think was the problem, maybe Selig should never have been put in charge of a laundromat, let alone a professional sports league, but if you’re going to point a finger to blame someone for how this turned out, you’ll have to do a whole lot of pointing. It’s all basically irrelevant now, so let’s just move on. If the rain ever stops.
The game will pick-up in the bottom of the 6th, with a pinch-hitter for Cole Hamels. Expect to see Greg Dobbs in there facing Grant Balfour. When Utley comes up, we’ll probably see David Price into the game. I guess it could be J.P. Howell or Trever Miller, but with the game tied, I think Maddon will go to Price with the idea of leaving him in there for maybe the rest of the game, unless there’s extra innings.
The next Phillie pitcher will obviously depend on whether or not they score in the 6th. If they don’t, it would probably be Chad Durbin or Scott Eyre, if they take the lead, it will be Ryan Madson or J.C. Romero.
The ideal situation right now is for the game to be canceled tonight and finished on Wednesday night. Since Hamels only threw 75 pitches last night, you have to think he would be ready to start a potential Game 7 on three days rest on Friday. Of course, we all hope it doesn’t get to that point.
