Major League Baseball made a number of rule changes for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Among those were the placed runner in extra innings and the universal designated hitter.
Another rule change that didn’t get much publicity was in regard to suspended games. Under previous baseball rules, any game started that wasn’t “official” (five innings, or 4½ if the home team is ahead) would have to be started over.
Over the years, this wound up leading to very long rain delays in order to get past that fifth inning. It came to its absurdist peak June 1, 2019 in St.