NL Champion Phillies/Bad Joe Torre Decision

Congrats to the Philadelphia Phillies. For the first time since 1993, they are headed to the World Series. They dominated the Los Angles Dodgers in every facet of the game throughout the series. They had a deeper rotation, better bullpen, more timely hitting, and better speed and defense. The better team clearly won. For Dodgers fans, I think the series came down to Joe Torre's decision to pitch Derrek Lowe in game number 5. I think it was an absolutely atrocious decision for a number of reasons. While you may have given yourself a slight edge in the pitching match up for that game (which is slightly diminished because Lowe is on short rest), you have put yourself at a disadvantage the rest of the series. Why? Because in game five your number 2 starter (Billingsly) had to go against their number 1 (Hamels). If the series had gone back to Philly, they would have had their number 2 against the Dodgers number 3. Lowe could have come back to pitch game 7, which I suppose factored into Torre's decision, but the fact is, it hurt the match ups for him in as many games as it helped them. The only pitcher on the Dodgers staff who had a chance to beat Hamels was Lowe. Instead, Torre trusted Billingsly to do it, who is very inconsistent and was coming off a terrible start in game 2. Some may say the Dodgers needed to win game 4, which is true, and they didn't have a good enough fourth starter to do it. Valid point, but if you lose game 4, game 5 is an absolute must-win to extend the season. If you win game 4, game 5 is pivotal to win in order to go back to Philly up 3-2. Joe Torre should have handed the ball to Greg Maddox in game 4. Yes, he had been really bad with the Dodgers in the last month of the season, but he knows how to pitch in the post season. Would it have been a risk? Absolutely, but then at least you can put your best pitcher out there against their best in game 5. Would it have made a difference in the outcome of the series? Probably not, but it did kill any chance the Dodgers had. Congrats again to Philly. Very impressive.

Rays go for the World Series tonight. By guess is that the Sox win with Dice-K tonight, and then go back and lose game 6 in Tampa. That is probably the better way for the Rays to win it anyway. Don't you want to see the Trop go crazy? They might not know what's happening, but at least they'd be screaming their heads off. The Rays winning tonight would be crazy as well, though. You would be able to hear a pin drop at Fenway, and winning 3 straight there would just be downright silly. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading.