CLEVELAND — Day-long rain that turned into soaking showers in the early evening led to the postponement of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Friday night.
The Cleveland Guardians lead the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, which now will resume Saturday at 8 p.m. A scheduled off-day Sunday has been erased with Game 5 shifted to 5 p.m. that day, also in Cleveland.
MLB officials made the decision to postpone the game an hour after its scheduled first pitch of 8:08 p.m. More than a dozen Rays players were working out in the outfield, playing catch in the heavy rain, before the announcement was made.
Rays right-hander Nick Martinez (0-0, 4.91 ERA) was scheduled to pitch against Guardians right-hander Shawn Armstrong (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
Cleveland had planned on a bullpen game in order to allow Foster Griffin, Parker Messick and ace Gavin Williams to start the final three potential contests. Games 6 and 7 will be hosted by the Rays.
It was the latest weather-related disruption to the championship series. Game 3 on Thursday was moved up from an evening start to 1 p.m. due to inclement weather in the forecast. The Guardians prevailed 3-2 to move ahead in the series.
–Brian Dulik, Field Level Media
