Rain Won't Stop the Brewers and Marlins

One thing that got kind of brushed under the table this off-season among the crazy free agent spending was the fact that Major League Baseball actually made a couple of rule changes for the first time in quite a while. The Marlins and Brewers became the first teams to test those new rules last night. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins will be the first major-league teams to benefit from the rule amendment for suspended games.

Play was suspended Tuesday night - actually at 12:03 this morning local time - during the third rain delay of the game with the Brewers and Marlins tied, 2-2, after 10 innings at Dolphin Stadium.

Under the rule amended over the off-season, the game will resume tonight where it was halted, with the Brewers coming to bat in the top of the 11th. That resumption is set for 6 p.m., with the regularly scheduled game between the teams to follow.

Before the rule amendment, all games halted by rain after five innings with the score tied were replayed from the beginning, with the statistics counting from the suspended game.

"It's a good rule," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "We'd be in trouble if they didn't (amend it). The Marlins, too, would be in trouble.

I imagine Ned Yost isn't the only person that thinks it's a good rule. In fact, it's kind of nice to see baseball introduce some logic based rules. No one wants to start over after 11 innings. Before the delay, Geoff Jenkins and Prince Fielder both had three hits for the Brewers, but neither managed to score or drive in any runs. That seems kind of unusual. Beyond that, there really wasn't much special about this one besides being the first use to of the new rule.