Game 5 halted by rain in 6th

October 28, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

The Phillies and Rays were deadlocked 2-2 when the game was suspended.

PHILADELPHIA — Game 5 of the World Series was suspended because of rain in the sixth inning Monday night with the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays tied at 2. There was no immediate word on when the game would resume.

Carlos Pena hit a tying, two-out single in the sixth for the Rays, and the umpires called it moments later.

Shane Victorino had a two-run single in the first for the Phillies, who led the Series 3-1 and were trying to wrap up their first title since 1980.

Evan Longoria pulled the Rays to 2-1 with an RBI single against Philadelphia ace Cole Hamels. The grounds crew came out several times to try to keep the field playable before the game was halted.

“Right now, we’re not optimistic,” Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, said just after play was stopped at 10:40 p.m. “Radar is not good. It shows this type of rain going on well into the morning.”

Had Pena not tied the score, MLB would have been left with a difficult situation.

Under the rules, if play had stopped after the trailing team made 15 outs, it would be have been an official game that could have been shortened to less than nine innings. But MLB has never had a shortened postseason game, and MLB could have changed its rules on the fly and suspended the game, anyway.

Joe Garagiola Jr., vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office, didn’t want to speculate.

“It’s not an issue at this point. I don’t think we want to get into that,” Garagiola said before the game.

Rain was forecast to continue through Tuesday.

The game began in light rain, which got heavier in the middle innings. When Rays starter Scott Kazmir was replaced by Grant Balfour in the bottom of the fifth, the grounds crew came out to put down drying material in the infield, concentrating on the mound, and areas in front of the plate and near first and third bases. The grounds crew dumped more of the drying agent on the infield at the end of the inning.

There were pockets of empty blue seats as the rain got heavier, with some fans retreating to the covered concourses.

With the game time temperature at 47 degrees, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins wore a cap with earflaps, as did Rays infielders Longoria and Jason Bartlett. Both starting pitchers wore turtlenecks under their jerseys.

There have been three World Series games that ended in ties: in 1907, 1912 and 1922. MLB changed its rules after the 2006 season to eliminate shortened games ending in ties, changing them to suspended games.