(Stay up to date with latest news on the World Series schedule at http://www.worldseries.com.)
Game 5 of the World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Philadelphia Phillies was suspended due to rain in Philadelphia before the bottom half of the 6th inning began.
The game is currently scheduled to resume Tuesday night at 8:00 and according to Commissioner Bud Selig will not be moved to Tampa Bay under any circumstances. Furthermore, regardless of what day the game is ultimately played, it will begin at 8:00 ET.
Tomorrow’s scheduled start time is obviously contingent on the weather. Click here to stay up to date on the latest Philadelphia area weather forecast. As of right now, according to the hour-by-hour forecast, it looks like rain is expected for tomorrow night as well. The 10-day forecast shows sunshine on Thursday.
As for the game, Carlos Pena came up with an RBI in the top of the 6th inning that pretty much bailed Major League Baseball out of a pretty embarrassing situation. Had BJ Upton not beaten out an infield single with 2 out and nobody, and had Pena not subsequently driven in the typing run, the Major League Baseball rulebook would not have allowed for the game to be suspended. The end result would have been a Philadelphia victory, and World Series championship, in the first rain-shortened game in Major League history.
Interestingly, the MLB rulebook was changed in 2007 to allow for suspended tie games in the World Series. Prior to 2007, the game would have been declared a tie and started over from the first inning. Jayson Stark and his crooked mustache do a great job of breaking the whole situation down in his Playoffs Blog on ESPN.com.
Another interesting note from the Stark blog: the Rays already checked out of their hotel rooms, thinking that they would be flying back to Tampa after the game. Apparently they were still scrambling for hotel rooms as of about 11:00pm because their original hotel rooms were booked.
What a wacky night in Philly. But thank goodness for Carlos Pena, because it would have been a real shame had the World Series ended with the score 2-1 because of the rain. Looks like the exorcism of the “devil” from the Rays’ name has paid dividends once again. Major League Baseball should definitely look into changing that rule. The mere chance that such a result could conceivably occur needs to be eliminated from the realm of possibility.
[tags]mlb, world series, game 5 suspended, tampa bay rays, philadelphia phillies[/tags]
About Jerod Morris
