Reign Delay- Texas Title Hopes On Hold; Cards Get Weather Reprieve

The Texas Rangers will have to wait at least one more day to earn their first World Series title in franchise history. Rain fell on St. Louis periodically throughout the day and with more expected on the way tonight, Joe Torre, Walt Jocketty and Major League Baseball met this afternoon to discuss postponing tonight’s Game Six of the World Series. The verdict: Game Six will be played tomorrow under much clearer skies, with a potential Game Seven- and an even better outlook– moving to Friday.

In a statement Wednesday afternoon the league announced, “Given the desire to play a game of this magnitude without interruption, and an outlook with better conditions over the next two nights, Major League Baseball, along with the Cardinals and the Rangers, determined that making the decision early would be the most prudent course of action to allow fans enough time to plan accordingly.”

"“Given the desire to play a game of this magnitude without interruption, and an outlook with better conditions over the next two nights, Major League Baseball, along with the Cardinals and the Rangers, determined that making the decision early would be the most prudent course of action to allow fans enough time to plan accordingly.”"

Baseball officials want to avoid a repeat of the torrential downpour occurred in Philadelphia during the clinching game of the 2008 World Series and the waiting game that followed. That game had to be stopped in the middle of the sixth inning, and wasn’t resumed for nearly two days. The stop and start nature of two of Detroit’s Justin Verlander post-season outings due to rain delays was also taken into consideration. Rangers manager Ron Washington does not want to risk losing Colby Lewis the same way the Tigers lost Verlander- because of a long rain delay. “If it’s possible we can play, of course we want to play. You don’t want to sit down,” Washington said before the decision was announced. “But, if the forecast says that it’s going to be bad weather and we’re going to play and start and stop; we have an opportunity to eliminate (the Cardinals) and they have a chance to stay in it.”

One has to wonder if this opens the door for Derek Holland to be available for an encore on Friday. Holland delivered a masterful virtuoso performance in Game Four on Sunday night, becoming only the fifth pitcher in the last fifty years to give up only two hits in eight plus innings of shutout baseball. A repeat of Mr. Holland’s opus could be in the cards for the Rangers if Washington sees fit to go with the 25-year-old southpaw.

One also has to wonder if Cardinal skipper Tony LaRussa told his team in person or over the bullpen telephone. If it’s the latter, the Cards are in for another surprise. No matter which reliever emerges from the bullpen door, none of them will be pitching tonight.