Just why did the Tampa Bay Rays end up staying last night in Wilmington, Del., and not Philadelphia?

We asked the general manager of the Westin Philadelphia, where the team had been staying, for an explanation. Here's what GM Mike Manzari had to say.

The Rays had booked about 100 of the hotel's 294 rooms through Monday, Manzari said. When the team finished checking out of the downtown hotel around 5 p.m. Monday, no one -- not the Rays, Major League Baseball or the Westin -- thought the team would be coming back.

So, Manzari said, the rooms were made available to other customers. And within hours, they sold.

"They filled up pretty quickly," he said.

When the game was postponed around 11 p.m., Westin staff reached out to the Rays to find an alternative. But the Rays were already on their way to a hotel in nearby Wilimington, Del.

"Somebody said we evicted them," Manzari said, referring to one Florida radio report. "That's not true. We loved having the team here."

The Westin provides rooms for about five MLB teams during the regular season, Manzari said. And he said the Rays are welcome back.

Grant Balfour walks through the team's new residence, the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Del., on Tuesday. After Monday night's World Series game was delayed, the team scrambled to find 86 hotel rooms in the city about 30 minutes from Philadelphia. [Brian Cassella, Times]

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