Phillies closer blows World Series again!

What an exciting year for baseball! Who would have picked the Phillies vs. Rays? Perhaps one of our bloggers here at Nihowdy boldly picked his favorite team to win it all and at least one bartender from Philly will be up every morning to watch the World Series!

What a team the Rays have! After nearly blowing it, the Rays were able to overcome their absurd collapse (blowing their 7 run lead in game 5) to take the series in an exciting game 7. It turns out that game 7 had the highest tv ratings ever for a league championship. I'm not sure if it was the state of Massachusetts hoping to witness one of the greatest turn arounds of all time, or simply the rest of baseball fans crossing their fingers and hoping the Red Sox do not appear in the WS. Anyways, this team is stacked! Being led by the recently hot bat of BJ Upton, eventual rookie of the year Evan Longoria and the return of Crawford. The pitching hopes to stay hot too with Garza outshining all star teamies Kazmir and Shields. After hammering the Red Sox with the long ball the Rays hope to continue their sweet swinging ways against a mediocre Phillies pitching staff.

On the flip side of things, the Phillies also offer an exciting all-star like offense. Homerun champ Ryan Howard and MVP candidate Chase Utley anchor this lineup. Add a little bit of youth (i.e Victorino, Werth and superstar Rollins) and we have ourselves a Series! It will be on the shoulders of Brett Myers to continue his late season turn around if the Phillies pitching is to match up with that of the Rays.

Now having examined the all-star like calibre of both teams I believe this series will come down to execution and use of the pen. Could it be the Rays pen struggle and blow unbelievable performances by the starting pitchers? Or will it unravel unhittable Lidge returns to his Astros form and coughs up a series winning long ball that crushes the spirits of Phillies fans everywhere.

My money is on the Rays in 6. It's going to be a great series!