Giants Upset After ‘Rain’ Shortened Loss to the Cubs

The San Francisco Giants, who are in the midst of a playoff race, were the victims of some shoddy jobs by the Chicago Cubs ground crew on Tuesday evening. Losing 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth, the Giants were forced from the field in what was seemingly going to be a short rain delay. 

Unfortunately, the grounds crew at Wrigley Field didn’t do its job in terms of warding off the infield from the rain. And the results were disastrous.

After a rain deley of over four and a half hours, the game was called in Chicago’s favor.

An archaic rule that indicates a game can be called by the umpires if the top of the fifth has been completed with the road team losing resulted in Chicago acquiring a cheap victory at the hand of the Giants.

The Giants are expected to file an official protest with MLB and manager Bruce Bochy didn’t seem too thrilled with the final outcome (via CSN Bay Area).

I’m frustrated. I’m beside myself…It’s probably not the right frame of mind for me (to comment) because it’s my last recourse. I hope they listen and watch what happened there. In this day and age, it cannot happen. It shouldn’t happen. So I’ll leave it at that.

It rained for just 15 minutes, but the grounds crew rolled out the tarp at a bad angle, leaving parts of the infield uncovered (see photo above). Once they realized the error, it was obviously too late.

Cubs general manager Theo Epstein indicated that he was willing to treat it as a suspended game and pick up action before the scheduled game on Wednesday.

Honestly, we tried every way possible for the sake of fairness and equity to get to the point of a suspended game and allow the teams to play nine tomorrow, but the rules don’t provide for that.

According to the CSN Bay Area report, there are only six conditions that allows for a game to be suspended and played at a later date. One of those conditions is a mechanical failure at the stadium. Unfortunately, the Cubs are one of a few teams that don’t employ a mechanical tarp.

In addition to that, the game was essentially halted by the weather before human error on the field. That’s reason enough for the umpires to reward Chicago the 2-0 victory after just 4.5 innings.

This game meant little for the last-place Cubs, but the Giants are currently 4.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and in the midst of the wildcard race. Losing out on an opportunity to come back and win the game could very well impact San Francisco moving forward. What if it finishes one game out of a playoff spot at the end of the season? I am pretty sure some will point to this one specific game.

While Bochy and Co. are expected to file an appeal, there is no reason to believe that MLB will take any action. However unfortunate the rule book is, there is nothing the powers to be can do about it short of changing the rules in the offseason.

Photo: MLB.com