Upton undoes pen's success

The Phillies' bullpen had been airtight in the World Series going into Game 3, last night but the speed of B.J. Upton saw both its hitless and scoreless streaks against the Tampa Bay Rays wash down the gutter like rainwater.

The Rays got their first baserunner and their first run off Phillies relievers in the World Series to tie the game off Ryan Madson in the eighth inning and increase the anxiety level of the Citizens Bank Park crowd of 45,900.

Before Madson entered the game, Phillies relievers had not allowed a hit to any of the 12 batters they had faced in the World Series. That included the single outs recorded by Chad Durbin and Scott Eyre in the seventh inning last night in relief of starter Jamie Moyer.

But in the eighth, with the Phils up by 4-3, Upton legged out an infield single on a slow bouncer to shortstop Jimmy Rollins. Then, in a flash, Upton stole second and third bases on back-to-back pitches against Madson, who did a poor job of holding him on.

Upton took second without a throw. Then he stole third and kept going, coming across to score an unearned run when catcher Carlos Ruiz's low throw deflected off third baseman Pedro Feliz for an error.

It marked the second and third stolen bases for the game for Upton, making him the first American League player to steal three bases in a single World Series game. It marked the fourth time overall that one player had three steals, and the first since Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals did it in 1968.

It also increased Tampa Bay's total of steals for the postseason to 22, a major-league record, topping the old mark of 20 set by the 1975 Cincinnati Reds and tied by the 1992 Atlanta Braves.

Phils manager Charlie Manuel used three relievers for one inning apiece in the first two games of the series, but he emptied out the bullpen last night, going with two relievers in both the seventh and eighth.

Going into last night, the bullpen had allowed two earned runs in the previous 222/3 playoff innings, good for an 0.79 ERA.

Durbin made his World Series debut in the seventh inning after Manuel lifted Moyer with one out in the seventh and a runner on third base. While he retired Jason Bartlett on a groundout to shortstop, Dioner Navarro came in from third and drew Tampa Bay to within one run.

After Durbin walked pinch-hitter Willy Aybar, Manuel went to Eyre, who had pitched in three games of the 2002 World Series for San Francisco. Eyre went to 3-2 on Akinori Iwamura, the Rays' leadoff hitter, and struck him out.

Right on schedule, Manuel went to Madson to hold the lead in the eighth but it didn't happen. Madson pitched 2/3 of an inning before lefthander J.C. Romero got the last out.

Before Tampa scored its two runs in the seventh, Manuel had the Rays right where he wanted them. If Moyer had gotten through the inning, the Rays would have gone from a guy who topped out at 82 miles an hour on the radar gun to the 95-plus heat of Madson in the eighth.