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Bannister and the Rangers had karma on their side, though. After a three-and-a-half hour rain delay, play finally resumed after 2:30 a.m. Chapman, having been iced for so long, was no longer available, so Girardi handed the ball over to Kirby Yates. After striking out the first batter he faced, Yates proceeded to hit the next two. Two run-scoring singles by Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus made the score 9-6, and the Rangers went on to win.

Girarid was miffed after the game, telling reporters, “It’s hard for me to understand what happened tonight, how it got to this point. But it did, and we lost.”

Girardi has nobody to blame for the loss but himself. Even if you buy that he only stopped the game in the ninth to ask for a new rosin bag, he must have known that stepping out onto the field and drawing the umpires’ attention to the conditions was going to increase the chances of a rain delay. Maybe he was hoping that the umpires would just call the game right there, and he would be able to steal a win while recording just 24 outs.

But baseball is a just sport, and those who attempt to sully the game with acts of chicanery will be punished. Joe Girardi had to sit in the rain for over three hours and then he lost a baseball game, as it was meant to be.

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Photo via Getty