NEW YORK – Seven double innings and runners from second base to start extra innings will return for a second consecutive season based on an agreement for the 2021 health protocols concluded Monday between Major League Baseball and the players’ association.
The agreement did not include last year’s experimental rule for extending the designated striker to the National League or extending the playoffs. After allowing 16 teams in last year’s postseason instead of 10, MLB proposed 14 for this year before withdrawing the plan last month.
Last year’s extended elimination deal only came together a few hours before the first pitch of the season.
“We are comfortable with both rules,” San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler wrote in a text to the AP. “It looks like most of them were fine with them in the ’20s, and with a year of familiarity under the belt, we’ll approach them well.”
Last year, there were 78 extra-innings, and the longest after the innings were a pair of 13-round contests in Houston, won by the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 29 and Oakland on August 7. Each previous season in 1901 had at least one game of 15 innings or more.
“During a season with possible delays at COVID, I think the seven innings and high school runner will help any team make up for lost time,” Arizona catcher Stephen Vogt wrote in a statement to The Associated Press. “I would love to get back to traditional baseball as soon as possible, but I like it for the 2021.”
There were 45 games postponed for reasons related to COVID-19 and only two were not invented, between St. Louis and Detroit. To achieve this, there were 56 double heads, most of them from 76 in 1984. About 12% of the games were double heads, the highest percentage from 13.6 in 1978.
“In fact, I liked both the seven-inning doubles and the second race,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin wrote in a text to the AP. “I was skeptical at first, but they were both successful in my opinion.”
Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker agrees to keep the experiment because it “saves pitching” during the pandemic.
“I don’t mind any of the rules,” Baker said in a text to the AP. – Besides, what are you going to do?
The agreement includes more sophisticated contact tracking for COVID-19, which includes the use of technology and more league rules on behavior to comply with coronavirus protocols.
Spring training opens on February 17 and the season begins on April 1. The union last week rejected MLB’s proposal to postpone spring training and opening day until April 28, a plan that would have led to a compressed schedule of 154 games per team instead of the usual 162.
Extended DH was included in last year’s health and safety protocols. MLB would not include him this year, after the union rejected the proposal to delay the season, which included that DH will be used again in the NL.
The start of last season was delayed from March 26 to July 23 due to the pandemic, and the schedule of each team was reduced to 60 games.