Rain back in play at outdoor Busch

ST. LOUIS -- As soon as the NLCS switched from Miller Park, the one stadium in these playoffs with a retractable roof, the threat of rain made everyone crazy before Wednesday night's Game 3 at open-air Busch Stadium.

Seeing Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia washed out of the Division Series opener between the Tigers and Yankees put enough fear into MLB officials that a repeat must now be avoided at all costs.

It prompted Sunday's Game 2 of the ALCS to be "rained out" without a drop of precipitation falling until much later in the evening and pushed back the start of Wednesday's Game 4, again with nary a sprinkle until the game's new start time more than two hours later.

The reverberations were felt Wednesday in St. Louis as well, with no one wanting to put Chris Carpenter and Yovani Gallardo in jeopardy of ruining their availability for the remainder of the NLCS. In that sense, the weather can severely hurt the integrity of a playoff series.

"They're very clear," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "The commissioner does not want a lot of delays or interruptions."

It figures that the weather in Milwaukee was perfect, so unseasonably warm, in fact, that the roof remained open the entire time. Just the security of a roof eliminates a great deal of the anxiety that ate up the hours before Game 3 in St. Louis, with both teams prevented from taking batting practice in case rain finally did arrive (it didn't).

"Well, according to my AccuWeather I have on my iPhone, we are not supposed to get any rain, so I think we are going to be OK," said Randy Wolf, the Brewers' Game 4 starter. "It's usually pretty right, too."

Wolf may want to loan his phone to someone from the commissioner's office -- or at least show them how to download the app. When weather is an issue, as it usually is during the playoffs, MLB officials consult a number of forecasting sites before making a decision. The consequences, for both the teams and the TV networks, are substantial.

"It seems to always rain on my day, so I was kind of surprised that it would rain on Carpenter's day instead of mine," said the Cardinals' Kyle Lohse, who won't start until Game 4. "But if you worry about it, and it doesn't happen, you're going to lose your focus."

There was plenty of concern about the uncertain forecast anyway before Game 3, with Brewers manager Ron Roenicke even asked if he would start one of his relievers if rain was imminent and then use Gallardo after the presumed delay.

"That's really a tough call," Roenicke said. "If you have a good [weather] report, I think it makes sense. But boy, that's really a tough call to depend on somebody reading a radar and letting you know what's happening. In theory, it's good, but I just don't know if that's too practical for us to do that."

Obviously, that's something Roenicke worries about a lot less than other managers, thanks to the Brewers' dome-field advantage. Baseball is such a routine-oriented sport that any deviations from the norm, primarily weather-related, can be a big problem.

"It's huge," Roenicke said. "I can't imagine how many delays or canceled BP or canceled games there would have been this year if we didn't have that dome. It allows me to plan on whatever is going to happen that day, which is great for a manager."