Post-game tidbits from the Phillies’ 3-2 win over the Rays in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg:
–The Phillies became only the sixth road team in the last 21 World Series to win Game 1. Of the previous five, three went on to win the series.
–For the time capsule: Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir delivered the first pitch in Tampa Bay World Series history at 8:38 p.m. Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins made the first out on a fly to right field. Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth was the first base runner with a one-out walk in the first inning and then scored on second baseman Chase Utley’s two-run home run.
–The Phillies scored two runs in the top of the first inning, just as they did in Game 1 of their last World Series appearance in 1993 against the Blue Jays on RBI singles by John Kruk and Darren Daulton in a game Toronto won 8-5.
–This was the eighth World Series game played in Florida and first since Game 5 in 2003 between the Marlins and Yankees in Miami.
–Left fielder Carl Crawford had the distinction of accounting for the first World Series run in Rays’ history when he hit a solo homer off Cole Hamels with two outs in the fourth inning.
–Rays center fielder B.J. Upton grounded into double plays in each of his first two plate appearances to become the first player to hit into two double plays in the same World Series game since Derek Jeter in Game 4 in 2003for the Yankees against the Marlins.
–The starting pitchers were selected just two picks apart in the first round of the 2002 player draft, Kazmir 15th by the Mets and Hamels 17th by the Phillies.
–Free food alert: Because Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett stole second base in the fifth inning, everyone in the United States can claim a free taco from Taco Bell next Tuesday between 2-6 p.m. in their time zones.
–Second baseman Aki Iwamura had three of the Rays’ five hits and drove in a run with a fifth-inning single, becoming the fifth Japanese-born player to record and RBI in the World Series, joining Hideki Matsui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tadahito Iguchi, So Taguchi.
–Upton donated the bat he used throughout the American League Division Series and American League Championship Series to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum before the game. Upton tied an LCS record with four home runs against the Red Sox.
3 comments have been left for this post.
I object to the characterization of Taco Bell as food.