Yeah, has this always been the rule? I swear, I remember them restarting games at the point they stopped them - or am I losing my mind? Not complaining, obviously - what a break. But it seems weird to wipe the game out as picking up where you left isn't terribly difficult and it saves a bit of time.
This used to happen more often (before the roofs). The astros had a bunch of games/stats wiped out on the road in the 80s. I remember Billy Hatcher having a great game wiped out.
They use to call games after 5 innings (4.5 if home team was ahead). They switched from calling games after 5 (or 4.5) to suspending the games until before the next scheduled game between the two teams. If I recall correctly, games that never reached 5 innings (or 4.5) have had to be replayed.
They can still call games after 5... they suspend them for the following conditions: Per Rule 7.02, these are the scenarios in which a regular season game can be suspended: Rule 7.02(a)(1): "A curfew imposed by law" Rule 7.02(a)(2): "A time limit permissible under league rules" Rule 7.02(a)(3):"Light failure, malfunction of, or unintentional operator error in employing a mechanical or field device or equipment under the control of the home club" Rule 7.02(a)(4):"Darkness, when a law prevents the lights from being turned on" Rule 7.02(a)(5): "Weather, if a regulation game is called while an inning is in progress and before the inning is completed, and the visiting team has scored one or more runs to take the lead and the home team has not retaken the lead" Rule 7.02(a)(6):"It is a regulation game that is called with the score tied." So, if a game doesn't meet any of those criteria... and if its after midnight, you typically see them call it (especially if travel plans are involved), or if its late in the game... they may wait it out (as they did in the Yankees-Rangers game this year).
I especially love that they haven't updated 7.02(a)(4)... I wonder which towns still don't allow the lights to be turned on???!!! The MLB rulebook, in regards to rain delays, is badly in need of updating. Gone are the days where they used to travel by train and stadium accessibility was an unknown.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Here's how the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a> will line up for game one of today's doubleheader. <a href="https://t.co/BZFX9wfZAb">pic.twitter.com/BZFX9wfZAb</a></p>— Houston Astros (@astros) <a href="https://twitter.com/astros/status/763751422525448192">August 11, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The more you think about it, the funnier/more illogical it becomes. We got crushed yesterday. It rained in the 3rd inning though, so that means they have to start from scratch. Of course, if it stopped raining at some point last night, they would have just continued where they left off, even if it was 5 hours later, and the starting pitching wouldn't have been able to resume their games, just like how they won't be able to today.
I don't think they would have pushed the issue past midnight.... even if a rain stoppage was on the horizon. If you look at the unique circumstances where they've resumed play well after midnight, it was always either a late-inning situation or the game was truly in the balance. In this case, the odds of them resuming a game really really late that had 7 innings left was very low. I'm sure the hold homer-dome fans are missing that place right about now... hell, did you know they're going to be playing college baseball in the new Vikings domed stadium?
whatever...1 hour or 2 hours then. i didn't mean to place relevancy on the number of hours. just saying they would have resumed the game under the exact same roster conditions that they could have today.
