Game 1, Con't.

A friend writes:

 

what a win.

I watched it in a suburbia Detroit office park shopping center bar, without sound. After Chase's homer, I decided I couldn't leave until we were behind. Couldn't do anything to change the momentum. Sure enough, we never fell behind.

That said, I've no clue what McCarver and Buck were saying but a big World Series moment came in the bottom of 5th -- because the game was in Tampa, the 9-hole slot came up and their guy got a hit, their PH guy. Then stole a base, and then the damn Japanese guy slapped another single.

If it was in Philly, if it was an NL game, Kazmir would have come out for a PH -- in which case we get to their pen earlier -- and we would have gotten to their 'pen earlier.

As for how bad we were with men in scoring position, yes, it sucks. We were terrible. Howard was the worst he's been, just about all year. Might have been his worst game of the season. But, we won. Which is better than being down 1-0 and hating how Howard played.

Now, on to something else that I never realized until tonight, until I had the time to really bear down on these Rays. They're a good team, but not a great team. There's not a single guy in the lineup who hit .300 for the season in their lineup.

Also, as for power, it's just Pena (31 HRs in about 140 games) and Longoria. Mr. Desperate Housewife is gonna be great, and I don't doubt that. But he hit just 27 HRs in about 130 games he played. For the season, he has the power equivalence of Burrell/Utley.

Again, this Rays team is really good, but go back and look at their season-long stats. (Not the post-season stats, the reg season.)

They aren't great. We aren't facing the '04 Red Sox or the '00 Yankees.