Rain puts Game 5 on hold; teams tied through 6 innings

By Ronald Blum

PHILADELPHIA – Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena hit a tying single into soggy left field just minutes before umpires halted play in Game 5 of the World Series because of rain in the middle of sixth inning Monday night.

The Rays and Philadelphia Phillies were tied 2-2 with the possibility the game would have to be suspended and completed later this week.

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.”

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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.

“Tomorrow’s supposed to be worse,” DuPuy said.

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 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.

Thirty-six of the 42 teams to take a 3-1 Series lead have gone on to win. Philadelphia, which began play in 1883 but has won the Series just once, was trying for the city’s first major sports title since the NBA’s 76ers in 1983. The Phillies had not lost at Citizens Bank Park during the postseason, going 6-0.

Hamels, 4-0 with a 1.55 postseason ERA coming in, was bidding to become the first pitcher to win five starts in a postseason. He allowed five hits in five innings.

In a rematch of Game 1 starters, Kazmir lasted just four-plus innings, allowing four hits and six walks – the highest total for a Series pitcher in 11 years. Balfour relieved with two on and retired three straight batters.

Philadelphia had plenty of chances to break the game open but stranded nine runners in the first six innings, increasing its Series total to 45. The Phillies were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, leaving them at 8-for-55 (.145) in the Series.

Hamels breezed through the first three innings, needing just 33 pitches to Kazmir’s 57. Tampa Bay had just two runners, with Dioner Navarro reaching on a two-out walk in the second and Akinori Iwamura hitting a two-out single in the third.

Iwamura flied into a stiff wind blowing in from left leading off the game, and Carl Crawford followed with a low liner that Rollins reached down for only to have the ball roll out of his glove. Crawford, who hesitated briefly when he thought the ball was going to be caught, was just thrown out at first and B.J. Upton followed with a groundout.

While Hamels needed seven pitches to get through the first inning, Kazmir labored through 29.

Jayson Werth walked with one out and Chase Utley was hit by a pitch. After Ryan Howard struck out, a walk to Pat Burrell loaded the bases for Victorino, who hadn’t driven in a run during the first four games.

Victorino got ahead 2-0 in the count, took a strike, then lined the next pitch into left field. Pedro Feliz singled, reloading the bases, but Carlos Ruiz flied out.

Tampa Bay, hitting .187 in the first four games, remade its lineup. Crawford was shifted from fifth to No. 2, dropping down Upton to third, Carlos Pena to cleanup and Longoria to fifth.

“It’s bumping Carl up as much as anything, too,” manager Joe Maddon said. “I wanted Carl to get up there. He’s been a successful two-place hitter for us. And I wanted to unfreeze those two guys a little bit. The fact that they’ve had a little bit of problems in the normal slots for both of them, I thought just by giving them a little different perspective today may help.”

Crawford batted second most of the year. He was inserted into the No. 5 hole when he returned for the playoffs after missing more than seven weeks injuring the middle finger on his right hand.

Pena and Longoria made outs in the second inning, leaving them a combined 0-for-31 with 15 strikeouts. The record combined 0-for for teammates in the World Series in 0-for-32 by Lonny Frey (17) and Wally Berger (15) of the 1939 Cincinnati Reds, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Pena then doubled off the right-field wall in the fourth, just to the side of Werth’s outstretched glove, ending a 22 at-bat hitless streak. Longoria, who had been 0-for-17 in the Series, followed with a single past a diving Rollins at shortstop.

Hamels fouled a bunt attempt off a finger on his pitching hand in the fourth. The Phillies loaded the bases with two outs, but Utley grounded out.