Phils edge ahead

PHILADELPHIA – Tim McGraw brought a little help to the Phillies on Saturday night as he not only delivered the first ball to the mound before Game 3 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park, but a little bit of Tug McGraw’s ashes.

Ya Gotta Believe?

Oh, yeah.

The Phillies waited 15 years (plus 1 hour, 31 minutes of a rain delay) to bring the World Series back to Philadelphia, and made it worth the wait. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth inning, 5-4, to take a 2-1 lead in games in the best-of-7 series. They can put some serious heat on the Rays with a victory tonight in Game 4.

The magic started in the ninth when Rays left-hander J.P. Howell hit leadoff hitter Eric Bruntlett with a pitch. Right-hander Grant Balfour entered and uncorked a wild pitch. It slammed off the backstop and Rays catcher Dioner Navarro threw to second. The errant throw sailed into the outfield to allow Bruntlett to reach third. Balfour then intentionally walked Greg Dobbs and Pedro Feliz to load the bases.

Rays manager Joe Maddon moved right fielder Ben Zobrist into the infield as a fifth infielder. Carlos Ruiz chopped a dribbler down the third-base line. Third baseman Evan Longoria dove and tried to flip it to the plate, but the throw was too high.

Bruntlett was safe.

The Phillies had won.

It saved the day.

“Bases loaded, anything on the ground, I’m going,” Bruntlett said.

On Tampa’s five-man infield, Ryan Howard said: “It looked like they were going to blitz.”

The Phillies had a 4-1 lead entering the seventh inning when things started to unravel.

Ruiz, Chase Utley and Howard had hit solo home runs to that point – with Utley and Howard hitting back-to-back homers in the sixth – making up for the fact that the Phillies still can’t hit a lick with runners in scoring position. They had runners on second and third with nobody out in the first, but went 0 for 3 with RISP in the inning to score only one run to make it 1-0.

Starter Jamie Moyer tried to make up for it. He entered the night 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in his first two postseason starts, and had his doubters as he stepped onto the mound in the first inning.

“I tried to put those starts behind me,” Moyer said.

But Moyer kept the Rays off balance throughout the night until he found trouble in the seventh – make that until Moyer found umpire Tom Hallion at first base.

Carl Crawford hit a slow roller down the first-base line to leadoff the inning. Moyer dove, fielded the ball with his glove and flipped it to first baseman Howard while in midair.

The ball beat Crawford.

But Hallion couldn’t see Howard bare hand the ball and ruled Crawford safe, which was apparent to almost everybody with the naked eye and confirmed indisputably on instant replay. Navarro doubled to put runners at second and third. Gabe Gross grounded out to score Crawford. Chad Durbin replaced Moyer and Jason Bartlett grounded out to score Navarro.

Had Hallion not blown the call, no runs would have scored.

Instead it was 4-3.

That came up big when B.J. Upton reached on an infield single when Jimmy Rollins couldn’t get the ball out of his glove to start the eighth. Upton stole second. He then stole third – his third stolen base of the game tied a World Series record – with Ruiz’s throw getting away from Feliz to allow him to score the tying run.