World Series Game Three: “Cold” Hamels knocked out by Pettitte, as A-Rod “smiles for the camera”! Yanks 8 – Phils 5.

By the third inning, if you asked me which pitcher was not going to survive the fifth, and be chased early, I would have said Andy Pettitte.

After all, his pitch count was at or over 40 at the end of the second – leaving him in the hole at 3-0, and Cole Hamels was dealing like Cliff Lee, A.J. Burnett, or CC Sabathia.

But Pettitte pulled it together, ultimately delivering six complete innings. Pettitte even drove in the tying run with a SINGLE! Conversely, Hamels failed to complete five and had given up five earned runs in the process – on route to his Game Three loss!

Perhaps his undoing was the “camera cruncher” of a home run by Alex Rodriguez that made it 3-2. Initially ruled a double, the umpires (Getting it RIGHT for a change!) did a replay review and ruled that A-Rod’s ball hit a protruding TV camera lens – and that’s what kept it from sailing over the wall. The TV views showed that this was clearly the case. Hamels would leave the game an inning later behind 5-3.

Nick Swisher and Hideki Matsui contributed additional home runs (Okay, I’ll get off Matsui for a while!) The bull pen held up, though Phil Hughes was once again some cause for concern.

The Yankees took back the advantage they surrendered by losing Game One at Home, by taking the first game in Philadelphia – with CC Sabathia coming around again tonight!

And, if this game teaches us ONE THING, it’s that REPLAY REVIEW should be instituted wide-scale across Major League Baseball. Presently, it is only used to validate or invalidate a home run call.

Too many calls, affecting the outcome of too many games, are made in error – and it’s time for this very logical – and now technologically feasible – change!

Wake up Commissioner Bud Selig! Should looking at a TV camera be such a... er, "Magilla"?