It's not midnight yet for Rays

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PHILADELPHIA -- Baseball had several tons of dirt stored up and ready to combat the driving, unending rainstorm. And it looked for a while like what little leftover dirt they had might have to be used to bury the amazing Tampa Bay Rays.

But as it turns out, baseball's greatest story wasn't quite finished. The Rays, who were never supposed to make this far in the first place, instead live to see another day, or two, or more.

The Rays are still in a 3-1 hole in games. But they have a shot, and maybe they copped a little momentum after tying the score late at 2-2 and foiling the Phillies bid for their long-awaited championship now that Game 5 has been suspended indefinitely.

"It's a magical season. And this is a little twist to the beautiful story,'' Rays first baseman Carlos Pena said.

"The story just keeps getting better. We wanted to extend the ending. We wanted to keep it going as long as we possibly can.''

The Rays looked lost for more than two days here, and when it rained hard on the Rays great run here Monday night, the Phillies appeared to be closing in on their second World Series title ever. But now the Rays have a chance to write a better ending to their season-long Cinderella story.

The Phillies led 2-1 in the sixth inning, with ace pitcher Cole Hamels going for them and the rain threatening to shorten things (at least by the rules of baseball). And some Rays mistakenly figured they better score quickly before the rain shortened their dream.

"We caught a break,'' Carl Crawford said. "If we hadn't scored a run, the game would have been over.''

As it turned out, the Rays did score. And the Rays would have been given a reprieve even if they hadn't. But this is better for them. They'll take a tie and true life into the rest of Game 5, whenever it resumes.

Rays speedster B.J. Upton slogged through puddles and slid through mud to steal second base in the sixth, and then scored the game-tying run on Pena's two-out hit to leftfield, navigating more puddles as he went.

Once the score was tied, baseball quickly suspended play. The Rays were saved. And so was the sport. They were spared the embarrassment of having the season possibly end in a shortened, soaked game.

Had the Phillies continued to lead, they would have either tried to play through the muck -- "man, it was bad,'' Pena said -- or perhaps call for a rules adjustment that would have allowed for a limitless rain delay. The actual rules don't allow for a delay into the next day. But commissioner Bud Selig said that's what he would have done.

Selig said he wasn't going to allow the season to end a champion be determined in a one-run, rain-shortened game. That he was going to wait days if he had to. "And that might be a day or two of three or whatever,'' Selig said. And that was the right call.

But not all the Rays seemed to know about Selig's plans. Some of them seemed to suspect their wonderful season was about end in such an unsightly, unfair way.

"I really don't think they would have ended the World Series like that,'' Pena said.

Rays manager Joe Maddon, who may be the calmest man on the planet, never thought so, either. But he didn't seem to know it for sure.

"I was kind of confident that the (Series) would not end in a five-and-a-half inning game or whatever, and we would lose it,'' Maddon said. "I was pretty confident about that ... I was aware that the commissioner has leeway in regard to this situation, and I was very confident that he would make the right decision.''

The decision Selig made to play the game, in consultation with team management and umpires, turned out to be the wrong one. But at the time, nobody knew it was going to be such an ugly night.

"Had the forecast held, we would have been OK,'' Selig said. "We were told at about 7:45 (p.m.) that there would only be one-tenth of an inch of rain between then and now.''

Score that a big fat error on the meteorologist. This was a day for Noah.

They all slogged through a messy five and a half innings, and both sides looked shaky and uncertain. But there was a sense that justice was served because the game was played poorly but evenly and was called with the score tied.

"As it turns out we have pretty identical line scores at the end of the day, and it didn't seem to be worse for one team or the other,'' umpire Tim Tschida said.

One of the concerns, according to Tschida, was to avoid things turning "comical.'' In his estimation, that goal was met.

Things are even, in Game 5 at least, but the Rays might have felt a strong sense of relief. By scoring the final run of the night, they might feel a sense of momentum. By getting past Hamels, and with a bullpen battle looming, they might feel they gained a slight advantage (though Philly's bullpen is very good, Hamels is the best pitcher going in this Series).

By receiving contributions from Pena and Evan Longoria, who took an 0-for-29 collar into the game but combined for three hits and accounted for both RBIs, the Rays have to feel better. Though all seemed hopeless, they say they kept their cool. Rays rookie David Price said, "The feeling in this clubhouse is good. Nobody's uptight. Everyone's loose.''

The one disadvantage for the Rays is that they had already checked out of their Center City hotel. They were scrambling to find a new place to stay late last night, and they might have been headed for the burbs or Jersey. But that is better than the alternative, which was an messy and quick end to their great year.

"It feels great to know we still have a heartbeat,'' Pena said.