Celebration after game-winning hit made Rays’ Phillips sick

ARLINGTON, Texas — Brett Phillips got so excited in the aftermath of his twoout single in the ninth inning of Game 4, the one that started a wild game-ending play with two errors and two runs for Tampa Bay in an 8-7 victory, that he got sick.

Phillips’ head started pounding, and the athletic training staff covered his head with a towel to calm him after the crazy celebration that followed the Los Angeles Dodgers miscues that allowed Randy Arozarena to score the winning run from first base.

“During the celebration, just exhausting a lot of energy, and I almost passed out. I didn’t realize I was dehydrated,” Phillips said Sunday. “I had to get an IV — first time, getting an IV. … When I went to the training room, my resting heart rate was over 140 just laying there. They were like, ‘We’ve got to chill you down. Chill out.’ But it was all worth it. Just a little hyperventilation going on inside me.”

Phillips said he had a little more than 500 text messages when he got back to the hotel, and he didn’t go to bed until about 4 a.m. after replying to “every single one of those messages. That’s something I take a lot of passion into, thanking everyone that supported me.”

Among those he heard from were Ryan Braun, Adam Wainwright, Liam Hendriks and Whit Merrifield. He said some of the messages were so explicit, they made him laugh.

“I got a text from my best friend, Mike Mann,” he said. “We were in the backyard at 8, 9, 10 years old, playing that same situation with a Wiffle Ball bat. Hey, bases loaded, two outs and you’re down by one in the World Series. He texted me that.”

CLOSED ROOF

There could be a lid on the rest of this World Series.

The retractable roof was closed for Game 5, and may not open again because of the weather forecast.