6th-inning stretch at arm's length

Resumption of Game 5 postponed until tonight, weather permitting

Phillies fans and some players were miffed that the game continued after the fifth inning - which would have been a complete game under league rules, and subsequently, would have meant a world championship for the Phillies.

But Manuel said Selig made it clear in a pre-game meeting that his intention was to play a regulation nine innings at some point. Manuel and Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said they did not share that information with their respective clubs - simply because they didn't want any change in focus.

"We knew that the game was going to be nine innings, so that kind of took that point away," Manuel said. "Like I knew if the game had to be stopped, it didn't matter what inning or something like that, that we definitely were going to be a suspended game, and we were going to pick it up from that point.

"That's kind of how I looked at it."

As was originally scheduled, tonight's game will start at 8:37 p.m., roughly 10 minutes later than usual, to accommodate presidential candidate Barack Obama's half-hour televised advertisement on several major networks, including Fox, which has World Series broadcast rights.