TOWER GROVE — Baseball should thank Carlos Pena for rescuing the World Series from a faulty rule.

Sure the Series could end Tuesday night with a Philadelphia Phillies victory and it’s likely the Phillie that gets that tie-breaking hit won’t need to take a wallet when he goes out to eat on Broad Street. But no matter how many balls Ryan Howard pulps out of the ballpark in the rest of this Series, no matter how many singles B.J. Upton turns into doubles — or triples! — with his high-speed kleptomania, the biggest hit of the 2008 World Series came from Tampa Bay first baseman Pena.

With two outs in the top of the sixth inning.

In driving rain and dropping temperatures.

To save the game from going on.

It was quite clear as the rain intensified Monday at Citizens Bank Park that the game was going to continue until it was over or it was tied — because as commissioner Bud Selig told reporters later he wasn’t going to let the World Series end with a called game. “I would not have allowed a World Series to end this way,” Selig said. Yet, that was the situation facing the Phillies and Rays as they played through the slop. (Associated Press columnist Jim Litke has already chimed in.) Once they got through the top of the fifth inning, World Series Game 5 became an official game and there was the chance the rain would crown the Phillies.

That’s no way to win a World Series. That’s like tying an All-Star Game.

Oh, right …

Back in the winter of 2006, after the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit had played in a rainy, slippy-slidey World Series (See: Curtis Granderson), Major League Baseball changed the rules on suspended games for the 2007 season and beyond. How Rule 4.12 (5) now reads:

Weather, if a regulation game is called while an inning is in progress and before the inning is completed, and the visiting team has scored one or more runs to take the lead, and the home team has not retaken the lead.

Had Game 5 been in the third inning or fourth inning or the like, the rain would have washed out whatever had happened so far and the game would, by rule, start over. Monday’s game drifted into the territory of “regulation game” once it got through 4 1/2 innings, even as the teams waded through the weather. And that triggered the above rule only because of Pena’s clutch RBI single. If the game is tied or the visiting team has just taken the lead without the home team having a chance to answer, then the game is considered “suspended” and will be picked up at a later date. (In this case, ASAP.)

The Rockwellian Rainout

When the weather clears, the World Series will continue in the bottom of the sixth.

If not for Pena’s single, they may have continued playing in that mess.

Selig’s comments after the game indicate that he and others were banking on the suspended game rule, were fingers crossed and hoping that the Rays would rally to tie or take the lead any … time … now … so that the game could be suspended instead of called. But why even have that worry? It’s the postseason. It’s the playoffs. Baseball is a game that is over after the visiting team has had nine innings at the plate, unless it is tied at the end of nine complete innings. The schedule and the grind of the regular season demands that a “regulation game” definition be in place. Sure after five innings a game in August is official. Swell. Move on. That April-rain game against the Pittsburgh Pirates that ended in sixth because of rain? Fine.

But come the playoffs, games should be played to their completion.

All of the game, every game. Until one team has 27 outs and the lead.

Weather, no matter how long-winded and grumpy, should not have a say. Not in the playoffs.

In hockey, there are rules in place to assure that a regular-season game ends as expediently as possible so that the team can get on the plane and play in Edmonton the next night. But come the postseason, those rules are rewritten. Games go until there is a victor. No 5-min overtime. No shootout. Just the game. Three overtimes — a whole other game of overtime — if needed. Why shouldn’t that be the rule in baseball? Why even risk having a World Series or a League Championship Series decided by a rain-shortened game that only goes five or six innings.

Write the rule to describe a “regulation playoff game” as one of at least 8 1/2 innings. Require that a game be played to its completion, even if delayed a day by rain — like Game 5. As baseball plays deeper and deeper into October (possibly November next year!), ugly weather becomes more of a player. The definitions of a “regulation game” should be modified to make sure a Series isn’t spoiled by a shortened game.

October rules. Rain shouldn’t.

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With Cole Hamels’ second start suspended, care to take another stab at who should be MVP?

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