Tonight is a tough one thats for sure. Kazmir can be just as dominant, if not moreso, than Hamels. He is going to bring it tonight. We saw how difficult it is to win the 4th game in a series vs the Red Sox. The Phillies NEED to win tonight.

If we can pull out a miracle tonight I really like our chances.

Shields v Myers and Garza v Moyer at the Trop in Game 6 and 7 are two games that lean HUGELY in our favor. The pressure on the Phillies, especially Moyer, would be absolutely tremendous. The poor old guy may have a heart attack prior to Game 7.

If we pull it out tonight, which I think we will, I am going to plop a significant chunk of change on the Rays to win Game 6 and 7.

Not giving up or anything…..but I totally agree with you. The ALCS against Boston was just…just amazing. I, much like all Rays fans, really wanted to win that series and be the AL Champs….to the point where I just said “I want to win THIS, who cares about the World Series this year”…..i really did. Just say that for a moment…..Rays are the AL Champions. This season has been great, the kind of seasons dynasties are born from. I can also imagine that Detroit and Colorado might have said the same thing…..but I do think we are more well-rounded teams than those, and still with a lot of talent to come. I think we have to remember it’s late October, we are still talking Rays baseball, and we are probably the envy of most teams throughout the league.

Realy good article RJ and most of what you say is how a lot of us feal. all hope is not lost for this year yet. if we can win tonight i realy think we can still take them. Really good article RJ and most of what you say is how a lot of us feel. All hope is not lost for this year yet. If we can win tonight I really think we can still take them. My nerves are shot and eyes are tired but I have regained my composure. One reason to hate the Phillies FANS is this I received by E-mail today.
World Series: Phils’ fans live down to their reputation
By John Romano, Times Sports Columnist
In print: Monday, October 27, 2008
  
PHILADELPHIA — It is a proud city. A city rich in history and steeped in tradition. In some ways, a city like no other in America. And today, perhaps the city of Philadelphia should be embarrassed.
During Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday night, Rays family members and employees say they were harassed and abused by Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park to an unacceptable degree.
Children were cursed at, and one 9-year-old boy had beer poured on him. A Rays family member stayed locked in a bathroom stall because, he said, Phillies fans were banging on the walls and threatening him.
Team officials were reluctant to talk about the situation for fear of stirring up more hostility, but they acknowledged they had extensive discussions with Major League Baseball and Phillies officials before Game 4 on Sunday.
’It’s like anything else. We learn from our mistakes and other people’s mistakes, and we fix them,’ Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said. ‘If it happens again, then it’s a bigger problem.’
Look, this is not a question of Rays fans being sissies. This is not about being offended by ‘Rays s- – -’ chants. We’re talking about behavior more suitable for a prison yard than a family ballpark.
You can make fun of Tropicana Field, and you can make fun of Tampa Bay’s limited fan base. You can dog B.J. Upton about hustling, and you can call Matt Garza a whack job.
But some words should not be used, and some lines should not be crossed. And from talking to the Rays on Sunday, the Phillies fans trampled all over every acceptable line of decency.
’I’m not going to be critical of the efforts we took (Saturday) night. If somebody else chooses to be, then so be it,’ said Phillies senior vice president Michael Stiles. ‘In my experience, it is very difficult to prevent words coming out of people’s mouths. And sometimes the words that come out are offensive. If they are profane, if they are threatening, if physical assaults occur, we will identify those people and eject them or arrest them.
‘There are some things you can’t control. If an entire section of fans start chanting the a-hole word, there’s not much you can do. ??We think we have responded to the complaints in the appropriate way.’ ???
Oh, so violators are ejected or arrested. And how many ejections were there in Game 3?
Stiles said he did not have exact figures but had been told by MLB officials that there were 12 ejections/arrests Saturday night.
Twelve? TWELVE! {I added this Trop 32 ejections/arrests of Philly fans in one game and 37 in the other}
In a crowd of 45,900? In a town known for having the country’s most brutal fans? In a game that did not begin until after 10 p.m., giving fans more booze time? Chuck E. Cheese’s has more ejections on a Saturday.
This is where I have a problem with the Phillies and the city. I understand that 200 or so knuckleheads no more represent this great city than the worst 200 knuckleheads represent Tampa Bay.
Yet the team, the police, the mayor’s office and the citizens allow their reputation to be lowered down to the level of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals because they condone this behavior year after year after year. Condone may not even be the right word. They revel in it.
This isn’t just rude or profane; it is intimidating and threatening. It is women being called whores and worse. It is children having food thrown at them. It is being pushed, shoved and jostled in the concourses.
Does this sort of thing happen at other stadiums? Without a doubt. And I’m sure it has happened on occasion at Tropicana Field, too. But no city has the reputation of Philadelphia. And the Rays have never complained about another stadium in this way.
An MLB official acknowledged the league shared responsibility for the lack of security at the stadium for Game 3 and said measures had been taken to assure fan safety Sunday night.
Unfortunately, the damage had been done. Sternberg declined to have Rays players introduced in the stadium before Game 4, at least partially because of the previous night’s crowd. Some of the traveling party also declined to attend the game.
‘Down by the dugout I had a good time with a bunch of guys sitting in the stands,’ said Rays manager Joe Maddon. ‘I was actually giving a guy a hard time for drinking Coors Light in Philadelphia. I said, ’Where’s the Schmidt’s? At least some Rolling Rock. Don’t be going with Coors Light.’ It’s so unfashionable for a Philly dude. I was all over him about that, so we had a good time.
‘Really, the biggest part is the families, if we could do something about that. Throwing mustard packs at my granddaughter is not very cool. The other part, I’m good with.’
There’s nothing wrong with passion. Nothing wrong with poking fun and having a good time. Nothing wrong with showing Eva Longoria’s picture when Evan Longoria is batting.
But something is very wrong about threatening families and children. And something is wrong with a city that allows it.

Congrats on the ALCS and your great season – I mean it. However, just remember that the outcome of the series may have been different if the Sox were like your team – healthy. This was not the same big bad team as last year. They were beat up going into that series. WS MVP Lowell wasn’t even on the roster and the usual CF Kotsay ended up playing 1B. The guy who replaced our injured SS – Lowrie – has been playing with a broken hand since May. Ortiz was still suffering from his wrist and Drew from his back. Then there is our super star Beckett who struggled putting his shirt on after Game 6 because of so much pain. He later said he would need another injection if he were to pitch again.

Now I won’t blame our season on injuries – that’s never a great excuse for 162 games. But for 7 games? Possibly. Normally the hottest team in October wins, but I think, in that case, it was the healthier one.

I feel exactly how you feel about the difference in “feeling” for the ALCS as opposed to the World Series. We hate the Red Sox, they are so hated and the rivalry is now so strong that winning that series seems like it was more important. Mostly because of who the opponent was and how the Rays won it…

With that said, I tihnk a lot of us saw the Phillies as inferior, certainly we’d win the games that Hamels was not pitching and stroll right on through the series, because Philadelphia was inferior to Boston who was inferior to us. And the NL is an inferior league. Truth is, be literally blew our “load” against Boston and have fired blanks since…
I don’t think the players have taken it as seriously, and have not been able to “get up” for this…

Beating Boston was great, but if we are going to lose to Philadelphia-lose because you just not as good them, not making the mistakes we have not made all season. Lose because they just out hit us, not because we all of a sudden canoot catch the ball, or of all things Sonny cannot throw strikes. (tho he was squeezed bad early, and Moyer had the most liberal strikezone the night before god it pisses me off)… If they lose tonight, it will be ok, this is a young team and we will have a shot at this again (hopefully) but I want them to lose going down swinging. If they can win tonight, anything can happen at home. If we truly are a fairytale story, BELIEVE WE CAN WIN TONIGHT!
I know we can do it- I know we are the better team. In my heart I know we can win 3 in a row against Philadelphia

Also what you said about the umps was completely true. Robots and review 09!!!

We still aren’t done. If we can get the job done tonight we could easily take this series. It’ll be a struggle, but even with all of this negativity around the Rays right now I still have faith. We’ve played our best the entire year when everyone starts to count us out so hopefully that’s the case tonight.

Seriously. Be confident. I woke up this morning feeling like a loser. Yet with every passing hour I see the path to victory become clearer and clearer. We are going to win tonight, Wednesday, and Thursday. There is no doubt about it.

The Philly papers will be in total meltdown mode tomorrow when they realize they have to win a game between Shields/Myers and Garza/Moyer inside the Trop against the best home team in baseball.