Field of Streams: Game 5 suspended

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig expressed some fear last night over whether to start Game 5 of the World Series after he saw rain fall during Tampa Bay's batting practice at Citizens Bank Park, less than two hours before game time.

But after meeting with officials and the managers of both the Phillies and the Rays, he said he decided to go on with the game "with significant trepidation."

Bad move.

What was pretty much a drizzle for the first three innings turned into a downpour that left the infield a muddy mess and the grass dangerously slick, resulting in the suspension of the game at 11:10 p.m. after 51/2 innings with the teams tied at 2-2.

The game will be resumed at the point it was stopped, but there was no decision made on when that would be. Selig said the game would resume when the weather permits, "whether it's one day or two or three or whatever."

The weather forecast left little room for optimism that the game would continue tonight, with rain, wind and temperatures in the 40s.

"We'll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here," he said.

Selig added that the game would start at night because "the fans bought tickets for a night game, and it will be the same starting time, whether it's Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night or whenever."

Because of the uncertainty regarding the resumption of the game, the dates for Games 6 and 7, if necessary, are in a similar state of limbo.

Selig's decision to start the game could be widely second-guessed, as the insistence that the game continue despite field conditions that went distinctly downhill after the fourth inning. The ballpark's ground crew began throwing down bags and bags full of a drying agent to soak up some of the mud on the infield, but it didn't take long before the practice became futile.

"The conditions around the plate were real bad," Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz said. "It was real bad for the hitter, real bad for me, and for everybody. It was hard to feel the ball in your hand. When I tried to throw it back, I knew it was bad for [Phils pitcher Cole Hamels], too."

Tim Welke, the chief of the umpiring crew, said the game could continue as long as the mound and the area around the batter's box were not compromised.

"Guys weren't falling off the mound pitching and delivering, and the hitters weren't slipping out of the box," Welke said. "So we felt comfortable going. But due to the velocity of the rain, the grounds crew couldn't keep up with keeping the field. So at that point, we were going to stop."

TV replays showed Tampa Bay's B.J. Upton literally sliding into a mud pit when he stole second in the sixth. Upton later scored on Carlos Pena's single off Hamels, tying the game at 2-2.

If the game had been called before the sixth, it would have stopped with the Phillies holding a 2-1 lead. But Selig said the result would not have been a Phillies victory even though the game was official.

"I was not going to allow that to happen," Selig said.

According to Major League Baseball, no World Series game that was ever started has not gone at least nine innings, though three games ended in ties.

Selig said three weather services consulted by Major League Baseball agreed that only one-tenth of an inch of rain would fall between 7:45 p.m. and midnight, but that forecast looked to be in error with the light rain that fell before the game.

"When I went in for the [pregame] meeting, I had a nagging fear because the forecast had changed somewhat," he said. "If the weather had followed the original forecast, we'd be getting the game over by now."

But the meeting, which involved managers Charlie Manuel of the Phillies and Joe Maddon of the Rays as well as the clubs' general managers, umpires and the grounds crew, resulted in a "let's play" decision, the commissioner said.

After three innings, however, "the weather just kept changing," Selig said. He said he went to the field in the fifth to talk to head groundskeeper Mike Boekholder, and Boekholder told him, "We're OK."

"The problem was, it got worse," Selig said. "The winds changed. Things happened that we didn't expect."

The Rays checked out of their Philadelphia hotel before the game, anticipating a charter flight back home after the completion of Game 5. The team wound up in Wilmington.

Major League Baseball's Rule 4.12 specifies that suspended games pick up where they left off. That means the Phillies will bat in the bottom of the sixth inning with the score tied at 2.

If the Rays had not tied the game in top of the sixth, the umpires could have declared the game over and the Phillies the winner because the game had gone far enough under the rules. However, no World Series game has ever been decided that way. "It's not a way to end a World Series," commissioner Bud Selig said. "I would not have allowed a World Series to end this way."