Game 2 played out just like the unscripted Broadway play it was written out to be. Starter James Shields pitched like he had been in that position a dozen times before; when he made a mistake to a batter, he buckled down on the next guy and made sure that he didn’t compound the problem. The bullpen came on and got the guys out that it was supposed to get out and David Price went old school Gossage-style by closing out the game with 2+ innings of relief. Overall, the pitching was good enough that a couple of ground out RBI’s was more than enough to send this one to Philly with the confidence that the Tampa Bay area will have yet another excuse to go out and have a few drinks when the Series returns home for Game 6.

Views from The Cheap Seats for Game 2:
• The team that has won the opening game has won the last five and 10 of the last 11 World Series. Then again, history has no precedent for a team like this, so what kind of precedence is history?

• There are two ways that a changeup can be effective: the kind that fool the hitter in the first ten feet like Cole Hamels and the kind that fool the hitter in the last ten feet like James Shields.

• With their rendition of the National Anthem, the Los Lonely Boys made the Backstreet Boys sound like…well…the Backstreet Boys.

• The drawback to the exaggerated defensive shift on dead-pull lefties is that the routine ball to second base can become a base hit when the second baseman is somewhere out in right field. The advantage is that sometimes the second baseman is somewhere out in rightfield to take away a basehit and record the final out of the ballgame.

• James Shields looks a lot more focused when there are runners on base. It must be that Ryan Dempster glove shake thing. It seems to work for Dan Wheeler, too.

• After seeing Brett Myers tonight and seeing Jamie Moyer for the last seven decades it isn’t hard to see that the Phillies are a one trick pony behind Cole Hamels. There is something, however, to be said for a horse that can saw a team in half as its only magic trick.

• Rob “You can do it” Schneider does a pretty good Harry Carey.

• Jason Bartlett’s stolen base in game one was the 18th of the postseason for the Rays, tying the American League record.

• If you are sick of being equated to a second-rate comedian that thinks that just because Florida is in the South that we are somewhere on par with Alabama…you might be a Rays fan.

• The Rays need to find the old guy off the B-roll footage that is played during the Cotton Eyed Joe segue and offer him season tickets so that they can quit playing the canned stuff on the jumbotron. In a semirelevant piece of trivia, the song that The Rednex remixed for that catchy little ditty was originally recorded by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys in 1946.

• The Rays got away with a couple gift calls from the umpires especially the David Price pitch that brushed Jimmy Rollins. Ryan Howard, however, was rung up hard, and rightfully so.

• According to a Rays PR release, the net pool receipts from the first two games of the World Series totaled over $12.3 million. That is more than the Rays paid for their entire postseason infield for the entire year.