Delayed but not denied...
The Rays earned their fourth World Series title in the last ten seasons and their first in three years thanks to tonight's 8-5 win over Arizona to take it in 5 games. Things didn't quite go according to script though as after they built an early 5-0 lead they received an uncharacteristically poor start from their ace and Cy Young-elect
Joe Marlette, who lost the entire lead by the 5th inning. Fortunately the bats picked him up as
Cristian Hernandez, who homered earlier, singled home a run in the top of the 6th to put them back up and
Kelly Crumpton followed with his second homer of the game to make it 8-5. Crumpton is a free agent at year's end so this was quite possibly his last game in a Tampa Bay uniform and if so he went out with a bang.
Tommy Burpee then gave them two scoreless innings and
DeMarcus Evans handled the 9th to end up at the bottom of the dogpile:
In some ways this marked a bit of an "end of an era" as not only is Crumpton a free agent but so is
Dong-hwan Kim, so that's about 80-85 HR out of the lineup next year if they both don't come back. Kim is 36 so he's very unlikely to be worth a long-term deal. We also say farewell to
Michael Prosecky (somewhat steady but replaceable), and rentals such as
Francisco Morales, Evans, and
Garrett Crochet. More on all that in the offseason posts.