BOSTON — There may be one skill Buck Showalter has mastered: the act of gamesmanship. Subtle attempts at annoyance and disruption are his specialty, particularly when it comes to the Red Sox in recent years.
The Orioles may have had no ulterior motives in their handling of start times in the three-game series that wrapped on Wednesday night. The third game of the set was washed out shortly after the game got underway, and a 5-0 Red Sox lead built on three home runs was erased because the game will now have to start fresh.
The Red Sox should be unhappy with the rules, but they should also suspect the Orioles and their manager were eager for a situation like this to unfold. And it could have been avoided had the game simply never started, a call the home team makes.
On Thursday, Sox manager Alex Cora said he did not think there was any gamesmanship at play on behalf of the O’s. Perhaps Cora really believes as much. Perhaps the Sox want to avoid an unnecessary drama.
In a dismal season in Baltimore, one that has already seen two of Showalter’s best players traded away — and may prove to be his last as a big league manager — why would he all of a sudden change his m.o.?
When it comes to Showalter, he should have lost the benefit of the doubt by now.
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The home team determines whether a game gets underway, by the rule book. In practicality, the way it usually works is that the league, the umpires, the home team and even the visiting team are involved in the process, a baseball source said.
But based on what Cora said Wednesday and Thursday, there’s no evidence the Sox were involved.
Cora on Thursday afternoon volunteered a memory. When the Red Sox postponed their April 16 Patriots’ Day game this season, a game against the Orioles, the Sox did so a day ahead of time.
"We were nice with them, huh?” Cora said. “On Marathon [Monday], we canceled it on Sunday.”
Of course, the Sox had their fans to think about as well. But the fact that Cora mentioned that April game at all on Thursday seemed a not-so-subtle, Showalterian nod to how the Orioles operated a night earlier.
Cora said Thursday he feels that the home team has too much control in these situations, and he's correct.
The rule that stipulates a game be erased if it is washed out in early innings — before 4 1/2 or five innings have been completed depending on whether the home team is leading — seems antiquated and pointless. (The rules are a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist.) There’s too much at stake for the players and the teams. Just suspend the game, no matter what inning it is.
“Maybe the rule will change for next year,” Cora said. “They’ll probably make an adjustment, hopefully for next year.”