Phillies roll into Game 3 win

It was a dark and stormy night. Really.

It was no time for a baseball game, let alone the most important game here in 13 years. It was time for baseball to honor its paying customers, not force them to spend hours under shelter from pouring rains and fierce winds, then to stick around until 1:47 a.m. to see who would win.

But stick around they did, and celebrate they did. Their Philadelphia Phillies are halfway to the World Series title after a 5-4 victory and a spooky ending that might haunt the Tampa Bay Rays beyond the wee hours of this morning.

How ‘bout that walk-off dribbler?

“Might have been a little squib down the third base line,” Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said. “Better to be lucky than good.”

Saturday night had given way to Sunday morning when Chase Utley and Ryan Howard hit consecutive home runs in the sixth inning, for Howard his first home run of the postseason.

The Phillies coughed up a 4-1 lead with nine outs to go, before the Rays self-destructed in the ninth inning.

Eric Bruntlett, a defensive substitute, was hit by a pitch from J.P. Howell. The Rays then summoned Grant Balfour, whose second pitch was wild. Catcher Dioner Navarro scrambled to retrieve the ball, then heaved it into center field, and Bruntlett took third.

The Rays walked the bases loaded and employed the five-man infield. Carlos Ruiz hit a chopper halfway to third and Evan Longoria landed on his stomach trying to make a play.

He had no play. Bruntlett scored, delighting a crowd that had waited hours upon hours for this moment.

They taunted Longoria with chants of “E-va! E-va!” They cheered raucously when Jamie Moyer brushed back Carlos Pena. They stood and stomped and waved white towels all night long, and all morning too.

“It was very uplifting to walk across the field,” Moyer said, “even through the puddles.”

The storm was not a surprise. It was forecast days in advance, with its path clear as morning turned into afternoon: Heavy rain, late in the afternoon and into the evening, with no chance of the game starting on time.

The deluge came at 4 p.m., and the thunder. Within the next hour, the teams were told to prepare for a 9:30 start, Rays Manager Joe Maddon said.

The fans could have been told to stay home, that the game would be postponed until today. Under perfect conditions, the game would have ended around midnight.

Under these conditions, fans would shiver for hours, sit a few more hours in a damp seat, and get home barely in time for church.

“As I drove in, nobody was staying away,” Commissioner Bud Selig said.

Of course not. This was the first World Series game in this town since 1993, with the Phillies shooting for their first title since 1980, with tickets priced from $125 to $225 at face value and many times higher by your friendly neighborhood scalper.

With that history and that investment, the fans would show up for a sunrise start if Selig told them to. But why not thank them for their loyalty by calling off the game at 5 p.m. in favor of a clear night tonight, rather than forcing them to endure an eminently predictable rain delay?

“I don’t think people would have wanted that,” Selig said. “The people have been here tailgating since three o’clock.”

They would not have minded. They might have been thrilled, in fact, because the Phillies would then have the chance to use ace Cole Hamels three times in the Series rather than two.

“The parking lots are jammed,” Selig said. “The corridors are jammed.”

The corridors were jammed with fans retreating from their seats in search of cover, as the rain went from heavy to light and back to heavy again, in a wave at 7:15 and another at 8:30, with gusts that blew one corner of the tarp into the air.

The game finally started at 10:06, the latest first pitch in World Series history. The clock struck midnight after five innings.

Selig said Fox had “not much” impact on whether the game would be postponed, but the fans had no impact. The fans should have gotten to spend Saturday night in a warm and dry house. That would have pushed Game 5 back to Tuesday night, but this way Fox gets to air “House.”

Safe at home, indeed.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com