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Utley's homer burns Rays in Game One of World Series
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Kazmir had his ups and downs - AP
One really bad walk came back to hurt Scott Kazmir, and ultimately cost the Rays Game One of the World Series tonight.
It’s hard to blame a loss entirely on one play or one at-bat, but I’m going to focus on Scott Kazmir’s first inning walk of Jayson Werth.
Anytime you face a lineup with deadly three and four hole hitters like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard of the Phillies, you absolutely cannot walk the one or two hitters ahead of them.
Anyone that remembers the old Devil Rays from the glory years knows the story very well. How many times would the Devil Rays walk Mark Loretta in front of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez and then watch a two or three run homer sail out of the Trop immediately thereafter? That’s losing baseball and those Devil Rays were very good at it.
Granted, Jayson Werth deserves a little more respect than Mark Loretta, but you still have to go right after him with the big boppers behind him. The Rays knew coming into this series that the Phillies would be looking to hit the ball out of the ballpark. With guys like Utley, Howard, and Pat Burrell in the heart of that lineup, odds are that you’re going to give up a few homers. If you’re going to withstand those homers and still win some games, you need to make sure they are solo shots. Bottom line.
When Kazmir walked Jayson Werth with one out and nobody on in the top of the first, he put himself in jeopardy with Utley coming up. Utley burned him for what could have been a solo homer, had Werth not walked, but ended up being a two-run shot. Well, that run ended up costing the Rays in the end as they lost 3-2 tonight.
Kazmir pitched a pretty good game overall and battled well despite not being on top of his game. He knows how big that walk was and hopefully he will get a chance to redeem himself and not make the same mistake in Game Five up at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Not all is doom and gloom for the Rays though. Losing a World Series game is never easy, but getting beat by Cole Hamels in Game One was almost part of the plan for the Rays in this series. Hamels has been lights-out so far in these playoffs and the Rays knew they were in for an uphill battle to score enough runs to win tonight. They didn’t. Moving forward, however, the Rays feel they have an advantage in the starting pitching matchups in the next couple of games.
James Shields will battle up-and-down Brett Myers in Game Two and then ALCS MVP Matt Garza will hook up with aging Jamie Moyer in Game Three as the series shifts to Philadelphia. These are good matchups for the Rays. In the ALCS against the Red Sox, the Rays were shut down by a red-hot Dice-K in Game One and then went on a home run binge for the rest of the series.
Hopefully the Rays’ bats can turn around tomorrow night and duplicate the turnaround from the ALCS.
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