PHILADELPHIA — MLB’s regular-season rule of starting extra innings with a runner on second base is likely to stay next season.
“I’m kind of in favor of it because it saves your pitching as much as anything,” Astros skipper Dusty Baker said. “It makes you play a different game at home than you do on the road. So yeah, I’m in favor of it.”
In a recent interview with Sirius XM host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the rule, implemented during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and kept in each of the following campaigns.
“The clubs like it, the players like it,” Manfred said. “And I think overall, the fans like it. I think it does bring sort of a focus to the end of the baseball game in a way that has been positively received.”
Manfred doubled down during his news conference after announcing Monday’s Game 3 postponement, saying “seems like it has legs to me.”
Extending the extra-inning format, however, requires getting the approval of the MLB Players Association.
“That’s a decision for the players to make,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said before Friday’s World Series opener. “That’ll be one of the things that we’ve got to talk to the guys about.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson, citing MLB’s roster regulations for reassigning and calling up players, also spoke out in favor of keeping the extra-inning format.
“But with the way the rules are now where if you have to option a player down, they’re down — or a pitcher down, they’re down for 15 days,” Thomson said. “So that runner at second base you’re not going to get in a 17-, 18-inning game. I mean, the chances are slim. So that helps you with roster juggling and things like that.”
According to Elias Sports Bureau data, home teams were 113-103 in extra-inning games this season and 262-263 in extras since the rule went into effect in 2020. In the three seasons prior to that, home teams were 312-294 in extra-inning games, per Elias. The Astros were 5-6 overall while the Phillies were 8-6.
The rule is not in effect for the postseason, which has seen four extra-inning games, including two of 15 innings or longer. Cleveland beat Tampa Bay 1-0 in 15 innings to sweep their best-of-3 wild-card series.
The Astros and Mariners then played what was tied for the longest game in postseason history in Game 3 of their division series, with Houston winning 1-0 in 18 innings. The Astros have played one other extra-inning game, dropping Game 1 to the Phillies 6-5 in 10 innings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report