After 28 years, the Phillies and their fans will have to wait a little longer to celebrate a World Series championship.
It could happen tonight. It could happen tomorrow night.
And that's only if they win Game 5.
Major League Baseball suspended Game 5 of the World Series in the middle of the sixth inning last night at Citizens Bank Park because a cold, hard rain put the infield under water and made conditions ridiculously unplayable. Commissioner Bud Selig said play will be resumed only when he deems the weather conditions playable.
However, one early announcement last night had the game resuming no earlier than 8 tonight with a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning between the Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays.
Of course, more rain is in the forecast.
Somehow, in a city that has not enjoyed a major sports championship since 1983, this only seems fitting.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel declined comment afterward. Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell and Jayson Werth also declined comment, but the expressions on their faces said more than words could.
They were not happy that they had to play in this mess. Nobody was, especially Phillies fans, who were on the brink of celebrating their first World Series championship since 1980.
Game conditions were bad by the fourth inning. It's not a stretch to think that the Phillies wondered why the game kept going only until the Rays tied it in the sixth inning, when they scored a run off lefthander Cole Hamels.
"They were the worst-case conditions to try to pitch in," Hamels said. "It's something you don't train for. You just have to bear down and try to make the best pitches you can. . . . You just have to let Mother Nature win."
The Phillies had their best chance to win on the mound last night in Hamels.
He will not be available if play resumes tonight.
"I have all the confidence in the world in our hitters and our bullpen to go out and win it," Hamels said.
So what's next?
"How the hell are we supposed to know?" righthander Brett Myers said. "He doesn't even know."
He was referring to Selig, whose news conference was on the clubhouse TVs.
It is expected that the Phillies will use their bullpen whenever play resumes. That would allow them to pitch Myers in Game 6 at Tampa Bay, if necessary.
"I wasn't on the field, so I didn't realize how bad it was," catcher Chris Coste said. "I think the fact that they scored the run [to tie the game in the top of the sixth] is irrelevant. It's the fact that the game probably should have been suspended at least an inning earlier. That's just the feeling that I got. I think that amount of rain was tough. And then you combine the temperature and the wind."
Rollins dropped a ball in the fifth that he never would have dropped if not for the rain and wind.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz barely made a throw to second base when B.J. Upton pulled off a steal in the top of the sixth.
It obviously was difficult for pitchers to pitch.
"It's hard to feel the ball in your hands," Ruiz said. "When I threw the ball back to him, I was feeling the same way. I have to say, yeah, it was a little bad for him. I know he could do better."
Ruiz said those were the worst conditions he had ever played in.
He wasn't alone.
It marked the first time in baseball history that a World Series game had been suspended.
"We're not going to have any problems coming back being fired up," outfielder Matt Stairs said. "It's not going to affect us. We're going to come back tomorrow in the bottom of the sixth tied, 2-2. You can't control what happened out there. You're not going to control our emotions."
But wouldn't it be a bit of a letdown to win a World Series like this?
"No chance," Stairs said. "The champagne will taste just as good."
Contact staff writer Todd Zolecki at 215-854-4874 or tzolecki@phillynews.com.
Read his blog at http://go.philly.com/phillieszone.
Photos: 2009 Phillies 
