Advantage, Detroit.
The Game 4 rainout on Wednesday night can’t be a bad thing for the Detroit Tigers, whose hitters have struggled so badly in the first three games of the World Series. In fact, the last time the Tigers were rained out, after losing Game 1 of the division series to the New York Yankees, they bounced back to win seven in a row.
It can’t be a good thing for the St. Louis Cardinals, as it means that unless there is another rainout–which is possible–they will only be able to use Jeff Suppan one time in the Series.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was considering skipping rookie Anthony Reyes to start Jeff Weaver, Chris Carpenter and Suppan on short rest in Games 5, 6 and 7. He won’t be able to do that with Suppan’s scheduled Game 4 start pushed back to Thursday.
However, given the dubious history of starters on short rest in the postseason (8-18 with a 5.40 ERA in 37 starts since 1999), perhaps the rain actually saved La Russa from a bad decision.
