Well, it had been a couple years since Allan H. "Bud" Selig had found occasion to remind the world he's very possibly the biggest horse's ass ever to shamble across the earth. I didn't watch any of the post-game coverage, but from the accounts I've read, he essentially admitted to making up a rule.
I understand not wanting to see the World Series end with a rain-shortened game. And on some level I think that winning a championship under that circumstance would devalue the accomplishment--certainly in the eyes of those predisposed to sneer at all things Philadelphia anyway. I don't think there was any intent to screw the Phillies here; if anything, the more rational thing to do--calling the game after four innings, with the Phils up 2-1--would have come across much more like the result of a thumb on the scale. There were no good options.
But that doesn't change the fact that this was handled in an abysmal way, and that the whole situation was the consequence of what has become characteristic stupidity and greed on the part of Major League Baseball.
Why start the games at a later hour, later in the year? What good can come of that? Higher television ratings, and that's it. The downside is what we've seen twice in the last few days: a game that started at 10 following a delay and ended shortly before 2, and this disaster.
As for what happens when they resume--and they intend to try tomorrow--it's anyone's guess. The Phils lose Cole Hamels, obviously, and while I think a battle of the bullpens in a tie game where we have four more turns at the plate to Tampa's three sets up decently, how the players on both sides will respond is a total unknowable. Maybe the Phils come out with new focus and righteous rage, and finish this thing. Maybe the Rays, buoyed by a near-death experience and the evident return to form of Pena and Longoria, seize the momentum. We can't predict it. And what's potentially infuriating is that however it turns out, these bizarre circumstances will have made the story.