Game postponed again: could Hamels pitch Game 7?
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Game postponed again: could Hamels pitch Game 7?
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Just received the official word: Game 5 has been postponed again.
The tentative plan is to play the final three-and-a-half innings Wednesday night starting at 8:37 p.m. Acccording to Weather.com, there is a 30 percent chance of rain with rain and snow showers likely occuring in the morning. The high temperature is supposed to be 48 degrees. So it looks good that the Phillies and Rays will play a cold, abbreviated Game 5 tomorrow night.
Here is another interesting sub-plot:
Now, there is a possibility that Cole Hamels could be available to pitch Game 7. All it would take is Major League Baseball keeping an open travel day instead of playing Games 5, 6 and 7 consecutively. If that happens, Hamels would get four days rest before Game 7, putting him in line to start the game if it happens.
This would be the scenario:
Monday - Hamels pitches six innings in the first half of Game 5
Tuesday - Off (Rainout)
Wendesday - Off (End of Game 5)
Thursday - Off (Travel to Tampa Bay)
Friday - Off (Game 6)
Saturday - Game 7 on normal rest.
But it remains to be seen what Major League Baseball is going to do about travel between Philly and Tampa. Everyone knows how much this depends on TV, and Friday and Saturday nights aren't great television nights, so I imagine Fox would rather play Game 6 on Thursday and Game 7 on Friday if necessary. But that would also force both teams to pull a potentially late night. Let's say Game 5 goes extra innings and lasts another two hours. The game would end at 10:37 p.m. By the time all was said and done, they probably wouldn't leave on their flights until 1 a.m. at the earliest. That would put them in Tampa at 3 a.m. and in St. Petersburg and checked into their hotel no earlier than 4 a.m. They would then play an important baseball game 16 hours later.
Regardless, the Phillies will now definitely have both Jamie Moyer and Joe Blanton available for Game 7.
Cole only threw 75 pitches and said he would be willing to go on three days rest.— ezd
Re the corrections posted by BrianHarrisburg: I see we readers are having to act as unpaid copy editors for Murphy again. Check over your copy before you file it, Murphy!
Comment removed.- If this goes to game 7, Cole is pitching either way..— Conshy04
- I am sorry, there is NO WAY you can not pitch Hamels for game 7. Also, would you use Myers tomorrow night, then come back with Moyer for Game 6? Charlie has some interesting decisions to make. That being said - we have 12 outs to play with, and they only have 9. So I like our chances to win it all when game 5 resumes.— dankil13
- Comment removed.
- What game 7?— ronzoni2
- This is all moot, since the Phillies will win tomorrow night! Stinks, though, I'll be stuck in L.A. traffic on the way home, and will miss the whole thing. *sigh* It ain't easy bein' a Philadelphian, even when you live in SoCal.— Philly2LA
- I think they may dust off Carlton for game 7 with Lonborg and Robin Roberts in relief...what say you Bill Campbell? And then we can have Obama the big ear'd Baby throw out the first ball after he delays the game 60 more minutes with his garbage about change meaning this game gets over at 3am and gets a 1.2/2.8 share nationally— jjman183
- Maybe I am missing something. But the way I count - even if the final game is Friday. he still has had four days rest. He finished pitching Monday night. Monday to Tuesday night is one day rest. Tuesday to Wednesday night is two days rest. Wednesday to Thursday night is three days rest. Thursday to Friday night is a fourth day of rest.— Bobphxville
- OK, laugh at this everybody, but on the subject of winning game 5 and getting it over with...How crazy is it to throw Myers out there Wednesday night? He has more than enough rest, gets pumped up by the home fans, shuts the Rays down for 3 innings and we're done.— Jrudy16
- I agree w/ longtime, b in dc, derek, et al...no way this goes 7 games..lets end this nonsense wednesday night. if we cant beat the rays in a three inning game in which we get 4 at bats...i don't even want to end the sentence. LETS GO PHILS!!! A Howard bomb, and three scoreless with Mad dog and lights out in the final two innings sounds darn good to me.— zdog
- GOOD NIGHT Philly Phans, The Trop is always dry always 72 degrees and always has COMPLETED games, see you there in a few days. STAY warm and DRY.— RaysJ
- Does anyone else think the Phillies got a raw deal from Bud Selig? It was raining just as hard in the bottom of the 6th inning on Monday as it was in the top of the 6th. How is it that the Rays were allowed 6 at-bats while the Phillies were only allowed 5? Aren't we the home team? The Tampa Bay Rays, this season at least, were built on manufacturing runs: stealing bases, playing hit-and-run, etc. As Upton clearly showed last night, in the top of the 6th, the weather had no effect on the Rays' style of play whatsoever. So why not let the Phils take the field in the bottom of the 6th and make it fair? The weather certainly wasn't any worse than it had been when Upton was on base and the majority of the Phillies' runs have come via the home run ball anyway; they would've had a harder time hitting it out of the park ... but at least give them a chance! I'm sure Selig jumped at the chance to suspend the game as soon as it was tied. I'm willing to bet that if the Rays had scored more than one run in the 6th the Phillies would've been allowed to bat but, since it was conveniently tied, Selig and the officiating crew chickened out and suspended the game. I was in the stadium for Game 6 in 1980 and, even though I've moved to Oregon, I still follow my Phillies fanatically and think baseball dealt us a bad hand on Monday.— Matt Emrich
- Comment removed.
