Finally! Phillies win 
Published Thursday October 30th, 2008
Victory in rain-delayed Game 5 earns Philadelphia World Series crown
PHILADELPHIA - From losingest team to longest game, the Philadelphia Phillies are World Series champions.
AP
Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins pours champagne over New Brunswick native Matt Stairs after the Phillies won Game 5 of the World Series last night in Philadelphia. The Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 to win the series.
AP
Phillies' Brad Lidge is hugged by his teammates after winning the World Series last night.
Strange as that sounds.
Strange as it was.
Brad Lidge and the Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint last night to win a suspended Game 5 nearly 50 hours after it started.
Left in limbo by a two-day rainstorm, the Phillies seesawed to their first championship since 1980. Pedro Feliz singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Lidge closed out his perfect season to deliver the title Philly craved for so long.
"It's over," Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. "It's over, man."
Bundled in parkas and blankets, fans returned in force to Citizens Bank Park and saw the city claim its first major sports championship in 25 years. No more references needed to those sad-sack Phillies teams in the past and their 10,000-plus losses.
It was among the wackiest endings in baseball history, a best-of-seven series turned into a best-of-3 1/2 showdown when play resumed in the bottom of the sixth inning tied at 2.
How bizarre? Series MVP Cole Hamels was a star in Game 5 -- and he never stepped on the mound last night.
Two Rays relievers warmed up to start, and there was a pinch-hitter before a single pitch. "God Bless America" was sung rather than the national anthem and the seventh-inning stretch came quickly.
For Philly, it was more than a World Series win. It was a bit of redemption for all the losses, the jokes, the slights.
Finally, something to celebrate.
How much did Philly fans want a champion to call its own?
Well, the sports hero they point to with the most pride isn't even a real person -- Rocky Balboa.
Yo, Adrian ... the Phillies did it!
Lidge went 48-for-48 on save chances this year, including two this week. He retired two batters with a runner on second, striking out pinch-hitter Eric Hinske to end it.
Lidge jumped in front of the mound, landing on his knees with arms outstretched. Catcher Carlos Ruiz ran out to jump on him, and teammates sprinted to mound to join them as towel-waving fans let loose.
A generation ago, it was Tug McGraw who went wild when the Phillies won their first title. A few days after country singer Tim McGraw scattered his dad's ashes on the mound, it was Lidge's turn to throw the final pitch.
Despite low TV ratings and minus the majors' most glamorous teams, fans will always remember how this one wrapped up. And for the first time in a long while, kids saw a World Series champion crowned before bedtime.
Reliever J.C. Romero got the win, his second of the Series.
While former NL MVPs Ryan Howard and Rollins drive the Phillies, it was their less-heralded teammates who helped win it on this chilly night and sent the Rays home.
Tied 3-3, Pat Burrell led off the seventh with a drive off the centre-field wall against J.P. Howell. Chad Bradford relieved and one out later Feliz singled home pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett.
Rocco Baldelli's solo home run off Ryan Madson, who relieved Hamels when the game resumed, made it 3-3 in the top of the seventh. The Rays almost got more, but all-star second baseman Chase Utley alertly bluffed a throw to first on a grounder over the bag and instead threw out Jason Bartlett at the plate.
Pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins, the first batter last night, doubled and later scored on Jayson Werth's bloop single