Game 4 is a total washout

By Tim Brown

Oct. 26, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS — Tony La Russa watched a movie. He signed some baseballs. He visited with friends, who sat shoulder to shoulder on a couch in his office.

Then he went home through a light drizzle, the same annoyance under which he arrived at Busch Stadium eight hours before, without any baseball in between.

Jim Leyland, by his account, killed “a carton” of Marlboros.

World Series Game 4 was postponed because of rain Wednesday night, the St. Louis Cardinals’ third deferment of the postseason. The Detroit Tigers had been rained out once before, in their division series against the New York Yankees.

“It’s worked all right for us so far,” said La Russa, whose Cardinals sat on a two-games-to-one lead for at least another day. “So, we’ll roll with it.”

The game was rescheduled for tonight, Game 5 for Friday -- a scheduled travel day -- in St. Louis, and Games 6 and 7 in Detroit on Saturday and Sunday, when rain is also expected.

Forecasters weren’t optimistic for the storm clearing today or, for that matter, Friday.

“Well,” said Jimmie Lee Solomon, baseball’s vice president of operations, “they’re going to be dicey.”

He said he expected light rain today and, “Unfortunately, Friday’s forecast is pretty bad, also.... We’re hopeful that some of those [storms] turn around and don’t come through.”

So, with nothing but time on their hands, La Russa and Leyland, his Detroit counterpart, pushed around ideas for their starting rotations, and penciled alterations to their batting orders.

Jeff Suppan, who pitched expertly in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, will pitch Game 4 against the Tigers, it appears, no matter when they play it. La Russa said he will choose from Jeff Weaver and Anthony Reyes for Game 5, but he was believed to be leaning toward Weaver.

Leyland committed only to Jeremy Bonderman in Game 4. Given the rainout, he could bring Kenny Rogers back on regular rest Friday and skip rookie Justin Verlander, who was ineffective in Game 1. Verlander’s fastball regained some velocity by the end of that 7-2 loss, but he still was hit hard in his final inning. Given that, Leyland might consider the Tigers’ standing before giving the ball to Verlander.

Also, the Tigers’ rotation was established with the idea of Rogers’ pitching twice at Comerica Park, where his earned-run average was more than a run lower than it was on the road. All three of his postseason starts, and therefore all 23 of his scoreless innings, have come in Detroit.

Of greater concern to Leyland is an offense that is batting .185 through three games, and how the Tigers could trail in a series in which his pitching staff has held the Cardinals to a .196 average.

The Tigers’ offense, already disjointed, got another day off. They have scored five runs in the Series, with an on-base percentage of .227, and Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco and Ivan Rodriguez are hitless in 34 at-bats.

Leyland said he’d stick with them for now, though his batting order for Game 4 moved Polanco, the ALCS MVP, down to seventh, and moved Carlos Guillen and Sean Casey up, to third and fifth.

He’d considered benching one or two, as La Russa has with the slumping Juan Encarnacion, but, using a pitching analogy, said, “It’s not like you’re going to go into your back pocket and pull out Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.”

He added, “This is the team that’s taken us to the World Series and these are the players that are either going to win the World Series or are not going to win it, but there’s no magic formula now.”

Rodriguez appears to be the greatest concern. He has a sore hip and back and, in Game 3, took a foul ball in the area of his protective cup.

“He’s fighting and trying to do too much,” Leyland said. “He’s down on himself. And we’re going to try to perk him up and get him to relax and hopefully have a good performance.”

It’s not just Rodriguez, not just Polanco, not just Granderson.

“The way we’ve hit,” Leyland said, “we’re probably fortunate we won a game so far.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Game called

World Series postponements

MULTIPLE DAYS

* 1989 -- Oakland at San Francisco, Game 3, 10 days (Oct. 17-26), earthquake

* 1975 -- Cincinnati at Boston, Game 6, 3 days (Oct. 18-20), rain

* 1962 -- N.Y. (AL) at San Francisco, Game 6, 3 days (Oct. 12-14), rain

* 1911 -- N.Y. (NL) at Philadelphia (AL), Game 4, 6 days (Oct. 18-23), rain

SINGLE DAY