Phillies Rays World Series Preview & Predictions

Written October 21, 2008 by Jason Lowry

This week the Tampa Bay Rays look to make one of the most improbable runs in baseball history, as they look to go from worst to last to win the World Series when they take on the Philadelphia Phillies. The series gets underway Wednesday night from Tropicana Field, as the Rays get home field advantage thanks to the another AL All-Star game win. The starting pitchers for game 1 will be Cole Hamels for the Phillies and Scott Kazmir for the Rays. We are going to take a quick look at how each team got to the World Series and give you our prediction of who we see winning it all.

Tampa Bay Rays
To start the season no one thought the Rays had the talent to come out of the AL East with the Yankees and Red Sox still loaded with talent, but young pitching, great defense, and some solid hitting was all it took for this team to climb to the top. The Rays started off the postseason by easily taking care of business against the White Sox, as they won the best of 5 series 3-1. Then the Rays took on the Red Sox in one of the most exciting ALCS series since the Red Sox came from 3 games down to beat the Yankees. After losing the first one, the Rays rolled off 3 very impressive wins and had a 7-0 lead in game 5 in the 7th inning, but the Red Sox spoiled the fun and came back to win both that game and game 6 leaving a deciding game 7. In the biggest game of the year for the Rays starting pitcher Matt Garza threw a gem, and the Rays took home a 3-1 win. This postseason the Rays have been riding the big bats of BJ Upton (7 HR and 15RBIs) and Evan Longoria (6 HR and 11 RBIs). The pitching has been great, and first round pick David Price has been lights out when he steps on the mound. The pitching better be there in the World Series, as the Phils have a loaded lineup of power.
Rays -103 odds to win Game 1 at Bookmaker.com

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Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies were able to sneak into the playoffs thanks to the Mets and Brewers late season collapses, and man did they take advantage of it. After failing to get out of the first round last year against the Rockies, the Phils made short work of the Brewers in round one winning the best of 5 series 3-1, and took that momentum against a Dodgers team that had just got done sweeping the Cubs. Again the Phillies rolled to victory, as they manhandled the Dodgers and won the series 4-1. The one thing you have to worry about if you are a Phillies fan is will the long rest hurt this team. Remember last year when the Rockies ran through the NL and had to wait a long time before playing again and got swept in the World Series. The Phillies haven’t played in a week, and its hard telling what that means for this team. One thing is for sure, and that is you can expect a great performance out of Cole Hamels who has been lights out in the postseason already racking up 3 wins in just 9 games. The scary part about the Phillies is their offense really didn’t have its best showing yet, as no one besides Greg Dobbs is really killing the ball, and Ryan Howard was no where to be found in the last series, so if some of the big guys bats get clicking this could really spell trouble for the Rays.
Phillies -107 odds to win Game 1 at Bookmaker.com

World Series Prediction:
Professional handicapping Jason Lowry sees this being of the more entertaining World Series in years past for those fans that actually sit down and watch the games. There have been so many sweeps in the World Series lately that its lost some of its excitement. I believe that the Rays pitching and defense is going to win out in the long run, as I got the Rays winning in 7.

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