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Rich Hofmann: Emotions aside, Phillies have edge when Game 5 resumes
EIGHT THIRTY-SEVEN arrived last night, cold but dry. Game 5 1/2 of the World Series had been postponed hours earlier. They could have played. It would have been miserable, 46 degrees and 25 mph winds, but they could have played. If the rain-drenched follies had not taken place the night before, they would have played. Sometimes you wonder if these people are ever going to catch a break.
So, tonight. Maybe. The Tampa Bay Rays will arrive for the bottom of the sixth inning with an emotional advantage, but that really is it. Through all of this - the rain, the disappointment, the loss of Cole Hamels for the rest of the game - the Phillies are still in good shape.
Through the gloom of yesterday afternoon, and the rain, and the suburban snow showers, that much seemed clear.
In this minigame, with the scored tied at 2-2, the Phillies will come to the plate four times, the Rays three. The Phils will get 12 outs, the Rays nine. This is clearly an advantage for the Phillies, a 33 percent advantage.
Then, there is the bullpen. When the game resumes, that is where it will be played out. The Phillies have had the best bullpen in the National League all season. In the playoffs, the back end of the bullpen has been impeccable. And now, because of the delays, Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero - both of whom pitched a significant amount in Game 4 on Sunday night - will be rested and ready for Game 5 1/2. Again, this is a Phillies advantage.
Yes, the rain robbed the Phillies of another inning or two from Hamels, the best postseason pitcher of 2008. Yes, this is significant. But you know how manager Charlie Manuel often falls into this construction when answering a question about his starting pitcher: "He took us to the place in the game where we needed to get.''
Well, even with everything, all of the rain and the controversy and the rest, Hamels took them to where they needed to get. They shouldn't have played the game on Monday night but, once they did begin, it did not end up in a terrible place for the Phillies.
Consider the alternative. The conditions began to deteriorate at about 9:20 p.m., according to the scrawl in my scorebook. "Rain picks up top of fourth,'' is what I wrote in the margin. And if you had made the stoppage decision based upon those conditions alone, a stoppage from the top of the fourth on would have been appropriate - it was raining sideways, after all. But the Phillies couldn't have wanted that.
To bang the game after four innings would have been a criminal waste of Hamels - because the game would have been replayed from the start if it had not gone five innings and become official. Hamels would have been a complete nonfactor then. It would have been a total waste of their ace. That really would have been the worst-case scenario.
To stop it after five innings is the popular feeling around here - the Phils still would have had a 2-1 lead, after all, and the game would then be resumed and not restarted. There was plenty of justification to stop it because the field really was a mess as the teams changed sides to begin the sixth. It was much worse when they did stop it a half-inning later, but it was bad after the fifth. It was.
But if you had administered truth serum to the Phillies before the top of the sixth and asked them to choose between, a) stopping right here with a 2-1 lead, leaving four innings for the bullpen when the game is resumed, or b) trying to milk one more muddy inning out of Hamels, their ace, and then giving the last nine outs to the bullpen, well, which way would they have chosen?
Close call, right?
It was a terrible situation. It never should have happened. The game should not have started, not as long as commissioner Bud Selig had "some significant trepidation'' about starting it. You need to be reasonably certain that it will be played to a conclusion - not just hopeful, but reasonably certain - when you are talking about an elimination game in the World Series. That was Selig's error.
But once it did start, the Phillies had to want it to go as long as possible. And because you don't like the way the top of the sixth inning turned out, with the Rays scoring the tying run, does not change the fact that, if they had been given the choice of stopping the game before the inning started, the Phillies might very well have voted to keep playing, to try to get a few more outs from their ace.
The rain robbed them of a full Hamels outing. It took away part of their expected advantage. It has to be frustrating. But the Phils have 12 outs remaining and the Rays have nine. The Phils have the better bullpen, and that bullpen is now rested.
Advantage, Phillies. *
Send e-mail to
hofmanr@phillynews.com, or read his blog, The Idle Rich, at
http://go.philly.com/theidlerich.
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