Last night, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series for the second time in their 126-year franchise history by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3. The game actually started Monday night, but ended up getting suspended in the middle of the sixth inning due to rain. The Phillies beat the Rays four games to one in the best-of-seven series.
So ends the 2008 baseball season. Hopefully the Cardinals will make some key acquisitions in the off-season and return to the World Series next year.
After the Chicago White Sox were eliminated, the City Council decided to put a hold on renaming Peoria “Thome Town” after slugger and hometown boy Jim Thome.
Now that the Tampa Bay Rays are going to the World Series, will the council consider renaming the city “Zobrist Town” after shortstop and hometown boy Ben Zobrist? Don’t let the fact that he’s actually from Eureka bother you, Thome isn’t actually from Peoria either, and that didn’t seem to bother anyone.
Regardless, congrats to the Tampa Bay Rays on beating the wildcard Boston Red Sox. They’ll be going on to play the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
Well, the Cardinals season is over for 2008, and they didn’t make it into the post-season. This year, in my opinion, it all came down to pitching. Their pitching — especially the bullpen — was their Achilles heel. The Cardinals’ website sums it up well:
The back end of the bullpen never fully recovered after Jason Isringhausen lost his effectiveness and got hurt. Carpenter made only three starts before he got hurt again, and Wainwright was down for more than 2 1/2 months, so while the rotation was deep and solid, it didn’t have the front-end punch that was hoped for. And the offense bogged down frequently over the final two months as Ankiel, Glaus and Molina dealt with injuries.
It was encouraging to see them end the season strongly with a six-game winning streak. Hopefully they will pick up in 2009 where they left off the end of this year and continue that winning streak, and go all the way to the World Series again. A few key acquisitions in the bullpen would go a long way to making that a reality.
Related note: I’m mothballing the MLB Standings widget in my sidebar until next season.