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At This Point, It's Conventional Wisdom Vs. Rays Resiliency

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2008

Updated: 10/29/2008 02:05 pm

PHILADELPHIA - It's chilly but reasonably clear here today, so baseball will be played tonight.

And when World Series Game 5 between the Rays and Phillies finally resumes after a nearly 48-hour delay, it will be unlike anything we've ever seen at this event.

At 8:37, play will resume in the bottom of the sixth and tied 2-2 with the Phillies sending up a pinch-hitter for pitcher Cole Hamels. From there, it will be a 3 1/2-inning sprint that will either end in fireworks and champagne for the Phillies or a massive relocation to St. Petersburg as the Series continues.

Conventional wisdom is that Philadelphia has a great advantage for two reasons.

It's a bullpen game now, and the Phillies are better there, and they have 12 outs to play with while the Rays have only nine.

Since when has conventional anything marked this Rays season, though?

We know about the resiliency of this team.

We know how many times we thought the end was near only to find out it wasn't.

Even now, down 3-1 in the Series to Philadelphia, the Rays appear to have the outlook of someone who just got a reprieve from the governor. The fact they had tied Game 5 before Commissioner Bud Selig finally called a halt after seeing dolphins surface around second base (I jest, I jest!) appears to have given them momentum heading to tonight.

But, who knows?

Momentum is only as good as the next pitch, so if the Phillies jump on whoever Rays manager Joe Maddon chooses to send to the mound, there won't be much time to counter. That works both ways, of course.

There is no precedent for what we're about to see.

No World Series game has ever been suspended in midplay, let alone one with the absolutely bizarre elements of this one. Selig's ill-fated decision to allow play to proceed for about three innings in absolutely wretched conditions Monday night will forever set this game apart.

Some Philly fans already are convinced their team is cursed and that the turn of events here proves it. A headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer today asked, "Does God Hate The Phils?" and the Phillies were noticeably angry when they left their clubhouse after Monday's interruption.

Conspiracy theorists here also have noted that Selig waited until the Rays tied the score before stopping the game.

It all combines to set up one of the wackiest nights in baseball history. It's not what you expect from an august event like the World Series, but it's what we've got, and there's no way to say how it will end.

I'll say only this: The Rays looked dead early on Monday, but the door of opportunity has been kicked open for them. History will have to judge whether it was fate, heavenly intervention or bumbling by the commissioner that allowed that to happen, but here's something to think about while we wait for that judgment.

Every time the Rays have been handed such an opening, they barged through that door. If they've got one more left in them, they might yet pull this thing off.

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