Rain temporarily delays Game 3 of NLCS between St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants
The National League Championship Series saw its first disruption of the year as rain delayed Game 3 between St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants for just over three hours. While there was a forecast of rain, the showers started descending in the seventh inning, leading to the delay.
To be played at Busch Stadium, uncertainty initially prevailed about the possibility of the completion of the Game 3, but it all went smooth eventually as the Cardinals went past the San Francisco Giants 3-1.
Before the commencement of the game, Cardinals' manager Mike Matheny said, "That's a part of being in the Midwest. We get this quite a bit. We understand that these guys do a good job of forecasting, but you never know for sure."
Major League Baseball had stipulated new rules as far as the post-season games are concerned. Essentially different from the regular season games, any disruption and delay in the game will not lead to the termination of it, rather it will have its start possibly on the same day or the next at the point the game was stopped.
In regular season games, a game affected by bad weather is ended and is replayed the day it is rescheduled. This rule was introduced and implemented in 2011 when the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees had a game in American League Division Series.
For now, the Cardinals are focused on concluding the National League Championship Series at Busch Stadium with a victory. Having a 2-1 lead, they are two games away from clinching the NLCS that will entitle them to appear in the World Series Championship and defend their title.
If it rains on Friday and postpones the game, there is a possibility of the Cardinals missing a day off which is also travel day as Game 6 is scheduled for October 21.
"They'd like to get the game in," Matheny said. "If you push this back until Saturday, then you've got quite a few different issues that seem to get pretty complex."
It will be interesting to see whether Friday’s game goes on smoothly or rain washes it away.
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