Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Jim Rome. He's funny, and occasionally smart, and almost always entertaining. But this time, he's just plain wrong.
Basically, Rome summed up Game 2 of the World Series by saying that the Rays are "built to do it to you with pitching, speed, and defense," and more to the point, that "they don't beat you with the long ball."
Why don't you ask the White Sox and the Red Sox whether or not the Rays beat you with the long ball? Of course, just looking at those 11 playoff games in which the Rays hit 22 home runs (2 HR/g) gives us a ridiculously small sample size. Sure, the Rays 180 team homers isn't quite as great as the 235 put up by the White Sox or even the 214 put up by World Series opponent Phillies,
but it still amounts to 1.125 HR/g and came in 4th in the American League.
No team in major league baseball can sustain winning ways without consistent power production. It simply can't happen. The Angels found that out in a bad way when their ridiculous, unsustainable clutch hitting over the regular season fizzled against the Red Sox. The Rays will not win this series if their bats don't show up and show up soon, because against a team with as much power hitting as the Phillies, they will need to be able to score runs in bunches. If Joe Maddon decides to play "small ball" as sportscasters such as Jim Rome seem to suggest, they will be running themselves into the ground by not giving their power hitters the chances that they need.
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