MLB / Nick Shiambouros / 21 October 2008 / Leave a comment

Nick Shiambouros previews the first game of the World Series where his beloved Tampa Bay Rays take on Philadelphia Phillies.

At 11.40pm Eastern Standard Time on a hot Sunday evening in St Petersburg, The Tampa Bay Rays beat the mighty Boston Red Sox 3-1 in one of the greatest post season matches ever seen.

The Rays now go on to reach the World Series where they face the Philadelphia Phillies for the right to be crowned world champions.

But it was not easy going for Tampa who sneaked rather than waltzed in to the final after blowing a 3-1 lead in the seven-game series. The final game decider at the Rays' Tropicana Field started ominously for Tampa with the Sox quickly taking a lead in the opening inning.

The home crowd were ominously quiet and Red Sox pitcher John Lester looked in control until the fourth inning when Evan Longoria stepped in to the box with one man on and delivered a hit to drive in a run to even the score.

The Rays took the lead in the fifth when Rocco Baldelli drove in a run and the whole crowd stood for the rest of the game and the noise level nearly blew the roof off the building. Willie Aybar extended the lead to 3-1 with a monster home run in the seventh and the Sox looked in real trouble until a memorable eighth inning.

Rays Manager Joe Maddon went to the bullpen when he took the ball from pitcher Matt Garza with a runner on first after he had pitched the game of his life to hold the Sox to just one run by the eighth inning. Four pitchers were used after that as Maddon tried to retire the side in an epic inning and a fifth was employed when young rookie David Price came on with the bases loaded. But Price delivered a blistering fast ball to retire CJ Drew and the Rays escaped.

Maddon surprisingly kept Price in for the last inning but he put the Sox to the sword by retiring the final batter Lowrie with a force to second base and history was made.

Boston tested the Rays to the hilt but the Floridians came through with flying colours and will face a rested Philadelphia Phillies team at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night.

The Phillies have solid pitching with Cole Hamels and Brett Myers and as previously reported they can swing the bat and do score a lot of runs at home. With hitters like Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins in the rotation they will be hard to contain especially at home and have a very astute manager in Charlie Manuel.

I am slightly surprised that the Rays are [1.73] to win the series as the Phillies have won 20 of the last 25 games. In addition they have to play 72 hours after beating the Sox and could be emotionally drained after that long series.

Tampa will rest and try to come out swinging on Wednesday and team leaders like Carlos Pena will ensure there is plenty of confidence in the dugout. The Rays can also hit with BJ Upton, Longoria and Carl Crawford to name a few and have quality pitchers like Matt Garza (pictured), who ended up MVP for the American League Championship Series.

At this stage my money has to be on Tampa Bay simply because they won the hardest division in baseball. Indeed, few can now argue that they are not the best team but I hope they can recover by Wednesday for game 1 which they must win to send a message to the Phillies and set the tone for the series.

But I'm backing them to do that and take the Rays can get it done in five or six games - options which are currently priced at [5.6] and [5.2].

The Rays have captured the imagination of the whole of America and every neutral supporter is rooting for them. They say that legends are made in the post-season. Let's hope they are right.