Almost every move was magnified.
"Everything seemed to be moving so fast," Rays leftfielder Carl Crawford said.
One could look at the way Maddon used his bullpen and do plenty of Monday morning quarterbacking.
Probably the biggest question concerned lefthander David Price. Yes, he had just 14 innings of regular-season, major-league experience entering the postseason and had only pitched just once in the first four World Series games.
Yet certain situations screamed for Price's being used earlier than the eighth inning, when he pitched a scoreless frame with the Rays trailing, 4-3.
The Rays had just tied the score 3-3 in the top of the seventh inning on Rocco Baldelli's solo home run.
Lefty J.P. Howell, who had come in relief during the previous inning, allowed a leadoff double to Pat Burrell in the seventh. Eric Bruntlett pinch-ran for Burrell.
Maddon then brought in righthanded submariner Chad Bradford, who got Shane Victorino to ground out to second, advancing Bruntlett to third.
The situation demanded a strikeout pitcher the caliber of Price. If he would have started the seventh inning, nobody would have blinked an eye.
Instead, Maddon left Bradford in the game and the righthander surrendered Pedro Feliz's RBI single up the middle, past a drawn-in infield, for the winning run. Bradford then got two groundouts to end the inning.
"All those guys in the bullpen did a great job all year," Maddon said. "David has done well but I didn't want to put all that on him and require him to do all that."
Price saved Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox in a 3-1 victory. There could be fewer pressure-packed situations.
In addition, Price closed out Game 2, allowing a run in 2 1/3 innings in the Rays' 4-2 win, their only World Series victory over the Phillies.
So he seemed capable of handling the pressure, despite his limited major-league experience. The Rays made him the first overall pick in the 2007 draft, and he didn't seem out of his element.
Price was also rested, having thrown 42 pitches last Thursday in Game 2, his only prior Series experience.
"I would have loved the ball any time of the game," Price said. "I think everybody in the pen wanted the ball."
Price finally got the ball, but it appeared to be too late. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning, allowing a walk to Chase Utley, but ending matters by striking out Ryan Howard.
Maddon conceded that using Price earlier could have been a viable option.
"Again retrospectively," he said, "maybe you could have done that, but I really had it mapped out the exact way that it occurred; it's just their offense didn't cooperate."
Contact staff writer Marc Narducci at 856-779-3225 or mnarducci@phillynews.com.
