PHILADELPHIA — There's no telling when we'll see the World Series again. Rain, rain made it go away last night.

A steady downpour did in Game 5, suspending it in the sixth inning with the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays tied at 2.

They could play today, but one look at The Weather Channel made that possibility doubtful. The Phillies lead three games to one, needing one more win for their first championship since 1980.

"I can't tell you tonight when we'll resume," commissioner Bud Selig said. "We'll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here."

There has never been a rain-shortened game in Series history, and this was the first suspension. Whenever this one resumes, it will pick up where it left off, with the Phils about to bat in the bottom of the sixth.

"It was terrible. The field wasn't bad, but it was the worst conditions I've ever played in," Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria said.

Carlos Pena hit a tying, two-out single in the sixth for the Rays, and the umpires called it moments later.

"The infield was tough. The ball would do funny things," Phillies second baseman Chase Utley said. "It was in bad shape. It was not playable."

If Pena had not tied it, Selig said he would not have let the Phillies win with a game that was called after six innings.

"It's not a way to end a World Series," he said. "I would not have allowed a World Series to end this way."

Fine by the Rays.

"The World Series always should be decided by nine innings with somebody making the final out, not the weather or natural disasters or whatever," reliever Trever Miller said. "That's what fans pay to see. That's what we work hard for all year."

Today was supposed to be a travel day, if necessary. Instead, the teams will stay in the area and then head back to Tropicana Field if the Rays win.

The delay, however, forced the Rays to find a hotel in Wilmington, Del., about 25 miles away.

About 10 minutes after the game was officially suspended, an announcement was made at Citizens Bank Park telling fans wrapped in plastic sheets they were done for the night.

Because it was only lightly raining when the game started, MLB hoped it could play a full nine innings. Quickly, however, the showers turned to a steady downpour and the field became a quagmire. The wind-chill factor was in the low 30s.

By the middle innings, the grounds crew was running shuttles onto the field, carrying bags of a drying agent to absorb the water.

B.J. Upton beat out an infield hit with two outs in the sixth on a ball that shortstop Jimmy Rollins bobbled. Upton stole second and hustled home on Pena's hit, with left fielder Pat Burrell's throw home plopping into a puddle in the grass.

Fans showed up hoping they'd be witnesses to a World Series championship. Maui's Shane Victorino got them cheering with a bases-loaded single in the first for a 2-0 lead off Scott Kazmir.

Rays manager Joe Maddon tinkered with his lineup, dropping the slumping Pena and Longoria one spot each — they were a combined 0 for 29 with 15 strikeouts after four games.

The Tampa Bay stars ended their hitless ruts in the fourth when Pena doubled off the right-field wall and Longoria followed with an RBI single up the middle that made it 2-1.

UMPIRES ADMIT TO ANOTHER MISSED CALL

For the second time in two days, umpires acknowledged they missed a key call in the World Series.

Philadelphia scored in the first inning of Game 4 on Sunday night after Rollins scampered safely back to third during a rundown. But television replays showed he was tagged on the backside by Tampa Bay's Longoria and should have been called out by third base ump Tim Welke.

"He's seen the replay. He knows he missed it," Mike Port, Major League Baseball's vice president for umpiring, said yesterday.

Rollins wound up scoring when Burrell drew a bases-loaded walk from Andy Sonnanstine, and the Phillies went on to a 10-2 victory.

It was the Rays who got a break in Game 3, when speedy Carl Crawford was called safe by first base umpire Tom Hallion on a seventh-inning bunt single. Replays showed Jamie Moyer's glove flip to first baseman Ryan Howard beat Crawford.

"Bang-bang play, and I tried to get the best angle on it," Hallion told a pool reporter.

Crawford scored as part of a two-run rally, but Philadelphia won, 5-4.