Storms wash away Guardians-Rays duel

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Game 4 of the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoff series between the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays has been postponed until Saturday after rain lashed Cleveland on Friday.

The storms soaked the Guardians’ Progressive Field, where officials initially announced a delay to Friday’s scheduled start time.

But as showers continued, grounds crew were unable to ready the field for the game.

A scattering of stalwart fans watched as workers tried to clear standing water from the warning track and dumped water from the tarp protecting the infield before replacing it.

The first pitch had been set for 8:08 p.m. About an hour after that, and with no new start time in view, MLB announced that the game would be played on Saturday, with game five to follow in Cleveland on Sunday.

The Guardians hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and have a chance to finish off the top-seeded Rays at home.

However, the series is now on a tight schedule, since the teams will travel back to Florida for games six and seven if necessary on Monday and Tuesday.

Rays manager Kevin Cash said he wasn’t frustrated by the belated decision to postpone, which raises the possibility that the teams could play four games in four days.

“I’m not frustrated at all,” Cash said. “I have no reason to be frustrated. I think we did everything accordingly, just like we would do during the regular season.

“There’s a lot of games you come in and you see the forecast. (I) felt like everything operated very similar, and that’s really all you can ask for.”

Cash said Nick Martinez, who was slated to start on the mound on Friday, would remain as his starting pitcher on Saturday “and then we’ll just go day-to-day from there.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said it was “a long day to wait to not have a game.

“But this is what happens,” Vogt said. “This is baseball. This is Cleveland. We’re more than used to these kinds of delays.”

Vogt will also stick with scheduled starter Shawn Armstrong on the mound in game four, and said his players would have no trouble adjusting if the series now requires them to play four games in four days — not unusual during the regular season.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal for either team. I think we both wanted to play today. It just wasn’t in the cards,” Vogt said.

All the waiting and uncertainty on Friday wouldn’t affect the Guardians going forward, he said.