Oct. 28 -- RAYS LOVE WILMINGTON

BY SCOTT LAUBER

So, the resumption of Game 5 has been pushed back until at least tomorrow night, which means, of course, that the Rays will be spending another night in lovely Wilmington at the Hotel duPont.

And that's just fine with them.

"Quite frankly it's one of the nicest hotels we've stayed in all year," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "If you're going to have to have a postponement, you might as well stay here. We haven't got out in the town yet, obviously that would be very difficult, the weather is kind of nasty here, too, but great place. People have treated us wonderfully, and again, we'll get out and walk around a bit if the wind dies down."

Asked how the Rays wound up in Wilmington, Maddon said, "Well, Jeff Ziegler, our crack traveling secretary, got on the phone immediately and did a little research. We were pointed in this direction. And finding it was only 30 minutes from the Phillies ballpark, we jumped all over it. There was plenty of rooms. It's a magnificent hotel, I believe it was built one year prior to Fenway Park, actually and walking through the downstairs lobby it's one of those old-fashioned, well kept, actually magnificent European units. So we get here, and it was quite a treat, actually, to be able to come up with this situation in a moment's notice. 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.

So, do the Rays have dinner plans in Wilmington?

"No, everybody is pretty much on their own," Maddon said. "I'm going to go see my kids. My kids are actually at my niece's house in Philly. We're going to rent a car and go up there. Everybody is pretty much on their own. [Hitting coach] Davey Martinez is going to get dry clothes for his kids, because they got so wet last night. There's all kinds of different motivation to the day right now. There will be pockets of people going out, I'm sure, but for the most part there's not one big function going on.

More in a bit from Charlie Manuel, who will speak with reporters for the first time since before last night's game.