Rays wind up in Delaware

You may not have heard of Jeff Ziegler, but the Tampa Bay Rays are indebted to him.

The Rays checked out of their hotel before Game 5 of the World Series on Monday, and then suddenly found themselves without a place to stay when the game was suspended at 11:10 p.m.

So Ziegler, the team’s director of travel, called around and finally found lodging at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Del.

Manager Joe Maddon said the hotel was one of the nicest he’s seen all year.

“We get here, and it was quite a treat, actually, to be able to come up with this situation in a moment’s notice,” Maddon said. “So we’re here right now. We really haven’t had a chance to get out in Wilmington yet. But we got fortunate in the fact that this place was available to us. And it was all about Jeff Ziegler pulling it off.”

Slumps over

Rays sluggers Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria were mired in a 0-for-31 World Series slump until they had hits in the fourth inning Monday.

Pena doubled off the right-field wall, and Longoria drove him in with a single through the infield. Pena added a game-tying RBI single in the sixth.

Choices

The Rays had the option Tuesday to go to Citizens Bank Park to get treatment in the trainer’s room or to get in a little extra batting practice indoors.