The Houston Astros defeated the Texas Rangers 10-3 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas to even the ALCS at 2-2. But Astros manager Dusty Baker had a bone to pick with the Rangers, and possibly with Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. Baker was apparently under the impression that the Astros and Rangers would each keep their respective stadium's retractable roof closed for the duration of the ALCS. “I don't know what changed,” he said.

The Rangers opened the roof of Globe Life Field for Game 4 of the ALCS for the first time since May 21. There wasn't anything wrong with the Rangers' old stadium, Globe Life Park, other than the fact that day games in the Texas summer heat were simply unbearable. They built the new stadium, with a retractable roof, to address that specific problem.

However, the weather in North Texas in the spring and the fall can be very nice. For example, the temperature hovered in the 70s on Thursday night. Excellent baseball weather. Speaking for all baseball fans, watching sports in an open-air stadium with nice weather is a far superior experience to watching the game in a massive air-conditioned warehouse.

Astros-Rangers roof dilemma 

Prior to the ALCS, the Rangers played only one postseason game in their home stadium — Game 3 of the ALDS against the Baltimore Orioles. MLB made the decision that the Rangers would keep the roof closed for that game. League policy for the MLB postseason is that all decisions on roof movement are made by the commissioner. As such, MLB — not the Rangers — made the decision to open the roof for Thursday's game.

So, Dusty Baker can save his qualms against his cross-state rival. “I don’t know, man,” Baker said. “I got word prior to us coming here that there was an agreement that both sides would close their roofs.”

Look, I get it, a reporter obviously asked Baker about the roof to elicit this response, but just move on. Bruce Bochy had to answer the same question pregame. His response? “I don't see it being any different. It's going to be a beautiful night. It's a beautiful ballpark with the roof open. I think you'll see that.”

October baseball

Baseball in October should be played outside. You don't need air conditioning to play baseball. You should be grateful it was a nice enough night to play with the roof open. Don't play the victim and act like it disproportionately harms your team to play with a little breeze. What happens if the Astros make the World Series and find themselves in Philadelphia when it's 45 degrees at first pitch? Is Baker going to whine about not having a roof then?

Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy are two of the greatest managers the game has seen. They each command immense respect from the entire baseball community. But… if MLB decided Houston had to open its roof ahead of one of the first two ALCS games, would Bochy have thrown a fit about “an agreement” being broken? Probably not. He probably would've been glad to see the stars.