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'Evan Almighty' A Victim Of The Baseball Gods

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Evan Longoria shows his frustration after striking out in the fourth inning.

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 26, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - As the ball rolled ever so slowly toward him, the only thing Evan Longoria knew for sure was that it wouldn't go foul. He didn't have many options, not with Eric Bruntlett of Philadelphia charging down the third base line hard toward the plate with the potential winning run.

"If I stood there and watched it and it stayed fair, I'd be on a bunch of different news columns," Longoria said later.

He didn't stand there. He actually didn't stand at all.

Longoria scooped at the ball and flipped it toward the plate as he sprawled head-first on the infield turf, but there was no chance. Bruntlett was home easily and the Phillies had a 5-4 win in Game 3 of the World Series. It was a 3-hour, 41-minute doozy that began after a 91-minute delay for rain and didn't wrap up until 1:47 a.m. in the cool, late (really late) October night at Citizens Bank Ballpark.

The Phillies lead the Series 2-1, and how can we best sum up the Rays' predicament now? With an arcane Philadelphia reference, of course.

As Adrian Balboa once said to her husband Rocky: "Win."

Win tonight or else.

Win tonight, because Phillies ace Cole Hamels, who stifled the Rays in the opening game of this tournament, is the scheduled starter on Monday.

Win tonight, or Hamels will get the ball with a chance to close out the Series.

Things change pretty quickly in this tournament, don't they? But few games changed as dramatically as this one.

And it was more than a little cruel that the final ball – a dribbler that covered maybe 40 feet – should have once again put Longoria at fate's crossroad. He had already endured a tough night.

Thought It Was Gone

Longoria is still hitless in the Series after four futile trips to the plate left him 0-for-12 in the Series. But there was one he was just so sure would break him out of the funk. It came in the sixth inning with two out and B.J. Upton at second.

The Rays trailed 2-1 at that point against ageless Jamie Moyer when Longoria crushed one into the molars of a 25-mph wind blowing in from left with an attitude.

"Longo hit the crap out of that ball. If the wind's not blowing in like it was, that ball is way gone," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

"That ball would have been way gone at the Trop," utility man Ben Zobrist added.

Longoria, well, he thought it was way gone anyway.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Longoria said. "I really was just jogging out of the box to see if the ball stayed fair. In my mind, I thought for sure it was going out. I started rounding first and saw him camped under ball. I was stunned."

Not half as stunned as the Rays were in the bottom of that inning when Chase Utley and Ryan Howard went back-to-back jacks against Matt Garza. Those balls went out to right field, where the swirling wind had the flags as stiff as if they had been dipped in starch.

"This was one of those days, one of those days where the things they did were right and the baseball gods were on their side, in my opinion," Longoria said.

"The wind is howling out to right and Utley and Howard hit it right for them. I hit one to left, crushed, and the wind is blowing straight in our face. The same on the last play – he couldn't have placed the ball any better."

Oh yeah …. that last play.

Had No Chance

The Rays had tied it by the eighth but it went downhill quickly in the ninth. J.P. Howell hit Bruntlett to open the inning, then Grant Balfour threw one to the backstop that ricocheted to catcher Dioner Navarro – who promptly threw into center field.

With Bruntlett on third, Balfour had to intentionally walk the bases full.

This game could have ended a lot of ways. But to have it end on a puny little roller to Longoria, after the winds had denied him on a blast like the one to left, was a textbook definition of irony.

To make the play?

Or let it roll?

No time to think. Just do it and hope.

"I don't think it was going to go foul. I could see it was staying fair," Balfour said. "That grass is really long and thick out there, and it's wet. There were a lot of things going on. The ball was hit but not hard enough. If he hit a little bit harder, you have a chance to turn two."

Longoria just shrugged.

"He couldn't have picked up that ball and rolled it to a better spot. Grant makes a good pitch, and if he hits a little harder we have a double play."

Somebody asked him again about the ball. He didn't hesitate.

"It wasn't going foul. There are so many things running through your mind at that point, but when it was all said and done I came in here and thought about it. There have been times during the season where something like that happened and I wondered, looking back, whether it was going fair or foul," he said.

"This was one where I definitely knew it was staying fair. Especially in that situation, you can't bank on it going foul. You have to try and make a play."

Maddon: Rays Will Win

The Rays need a lot of plays now.

They need Andy Sonnanstine to pitch like the horse he has been down the stretch. They need Longoria and Carlos Pena (combined 0-for-20) to hit like they can.

Every game in the World Series is a dramatic mood swing, but this one hurt a lot. It opened up so many questions. When will they hit? Should Longoria have made a play on the ball?

And now, most ominously, what happens if they don't win tonight?

Don't try selling any of that to Maddon.

"I'm really happy with our team," he said. "I have to reiterate with all of my love that we take chances. I love that they're not afraid to make mistakes. That's why we're going to win."

Going to win? Sounds like a guarantee.

He hasn't been wrong yet. But then, the Rays haven't had a lot of nights – well, mornings - like this one, either. It has put them in a position where basically the only option is to win tonight. They really don't want to think about the alternative.

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