ALCS Chaos: Rain Washes Out Game 4 as Guardians Lead Rays 2-1; Brewers Rest While World Series Waits
What changed (Oct 16-18): Friday night's ALCS Game 4 at Progressive Field never happened. Steady rain forced MLB to postpone it roughly an hour after the scheduled first pitch. Per Yahoo Sports' Rodney Knuppel: "persistent rain forcing Major League Baseball to postpone the contest until Saturday, October 17." The revised calendar: Game 4 on Saturday at 8:08 p.m. ET, Game 5 pushed to Sunday at 5:08 p.m. ET — eliminating the scheduled travel day — and Games 6-7 in St. Petersburg on Monday and Tuesday, meaning a full-distance series would demand four games in four days.
Cleveland leads the series 2-1 after Thursday's 3-2 Game 3 win, in which "Gavin Williams delivered another impressive performance... striking out nine batters over five innings." The Guardians are "just two victories away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 2016." Neither manager used the rainout to reshuffle: Stephen Vogt keeps Shawn Armstrong as the Game 4 opener, while Kevin Cash stays with Nick Martinez — who threw "13 scoreless innings across two appearances against the Guardians" this season and went 23-9 in Rays games he started — lining up Drew Rasmussen for Game 5.
Meanwhile the Brewers, who completed a four-game sweep of the Dodgers on Oct. 15 for their first pennant since 1982, now watch with "the luxury of... additional time to rest their pitching staff, recover from injuries and prepare." The World Series begins Friday, October 23, "leaving the eventual American League champion with limited time to recover if the series goes the distance."