Applicable date of rescheduled game for purposes of MLB tie-breaking procedures

  • Post
    Jeffery Tucker
    Participant
    If an intra-league game was originally scheduled early in the season, but postponed or suspended, and later completed near the end of the season, can such a game be classified as among the last half of intra-league games for tie-breaking purposes?  Or is it considered as if it occurred on the originally-scheduled date?  In 2020, it’s possible that a team could be qualified for the postseason or eliminated depending on the interpretation of this rule.
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      Mark Astolfi
      Participant
      First, you mean intra-division games, not intra-league. Second, for a sport that is so bound by the intricacies of its rules, it’s amazing that the exact language of this rule isn’t easily available on the net. Guess I’m not googling it correctly.

      But third, scoring rules state that for the purpose of consecutive game streaks, the completion of a suspended game is considered to have occurred on the date when the game began. This results in the odd situation where a batter can have a “hole” in his batting streak: say 20 games with a hit, then a suspended game without a hit, then 20 more games with a hit. Only when the suspended game is finally completed do we know is he has a streak of 41 games, or 2 streaks of 20.

      But since the tie-breaker you mention is the 20, 21, 22, etc. previous intra-division games, one has to assume that means consecutive games, and it would make sense for the scoring rule I mentioned to apply. But who can say for sure without seeing the exact wording, right?

       

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