Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

Hoyer: 'They get a fair shot now'

CHICAGO -- In an unusual twist, the Chicago Cubs advocated for their opponent as the San Francisco Giants were able to win a protest of Tuesday's game, which had originally been called after 4 1/2 innings and declared a Cubs victory.

"The idea of losing a game where you hit five times isn't right," general manager Jed Hoyer said Wednesday. "I hope we win the [suspended] game, but they get a fair shot at winning the game now."

The game will be picked up in the bottom of the fifth inning with the Cubs leading the Giants 2-0. Hoyer faced some tough questions as Major League Baseball directed fault around the Cubs' grounds crew, which -- according to the league -- didn't properly "wrap and spool the tarp" after its previous use.

"Our grounds crew does a great job," Hoyer said. "A pretty good batting average when it comes to getting these right. Obviously you have to bat 1.000 in this situation."

Others think the grounds crew at Wrigley Field has a tougher task than at other stadiums.

"The dirt is thicker here, the grass is thicker here, there's rocks on the warning track," catcher John Baker said. "When I played in the old Marlins stadium it would rain and rain hard and that field would be ready 25 minutes later.

"The blame is spread across multiple different parties. This field is really old, doesn't drain the best, that's an issue. ... I was pretty confident, once it started raining [and] the tarp wasn't on that there's no way anyone was going to fix that field."

Hoyer was less sure of Baker's assessment saying, “I think it [Wrigley Field] does a pretty good job. The outfield drains well."

Whatever the case, all parties agree the league did the right thing, but the rules need to be re-evaluated so an occurrence like Tuesday's doesn't happen again.

"It's not a good feeling when 15 minutes of rain causes the cancellation of a major league game," Giants outfielder Hunter Pence said. "I've never seen that before."

Baker says he thinks the whole thing went on too long. He's probably not alone. A 4-hour, 34-minute rain delay seems a bit much.

"One of the things we might ask for in the future regarding the collective bargaining agreement is if you have a game and it's a official game and you've waited an hour or two hours and it's midnight, just call it at that point," Baker said. "It's why we play 162 and not 30. If we were playing a football season with 16 games, yeah you have to play the game."

The Giants will get their chance to play but presumably only because of help from the Cubs.

"That's why we were here until two in the morning yesterday," Hoyer said. "Looking at the rule and finding a way to make it a suspended game. Once we were able to look at video and look at the tarp, it was obviously a mechanical issue there with how it was put away. We're glad it happened. It was a just outcome. We'll play a real game. Hopefully we'll win."

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