The American League Championship Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians won’t wait around for the weather.
Major League Baseball announced that Thursday’s Game 3 first pitch has been moved from 6 p.m. EDT to 1 p.m.
EDT because of forecasted rain in Cleveland. MLB said the switch was made “proactively in order to remain on schedule in the ALCS.”
The game remains scheduled for TBS, along with related platforms including HBO Max.
That kind of shift is never convenient, and this one figures to create plenty of headaches for fans trying to build their day around a postseason game. A midday start all but guarantees some empty patches at Progressive Field, even if the official attendance number looks decent on paper. Plenty of people simply can’t slip away from work at lunchtime, and not everyone can burn a half day of PTO for baseball.
It also changes the viewing picture a bit. For fans in Tampa Bay and Cleveland, the game is still easy enough to follow from an office TV, a phone, a tablet or a computer. For other baseball fans, it may be a tougher sell when there’s also a Brewers-Dodgers game at night.
The weather call makes sense, especially with activity expected through parts of Thursday night, according to the Weather Channel. For Rays fans, it may bring back an ugly memory of Game 5 of the 2008 World Series in Philadelphia, when a torrential downpour forced the game to stop and finish the next day.
If there’s any small relief for Tampa Bay, it’s that this mess is happening in Cleveland and not at the Trop. The Rays have already taken their share of heat for attendance in the first two games of the series, but a 1 p.m. start in St.
Petersburg wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. The Trop has a roof - a new one, as a matter of fact - and the next stadium will have one, too.
A postseason game late in the regular season was moved there because it has a roof.
For all the complaints that ballpark gets, first pitch would still be right where it was supposed to be: 6 p.m.
As for the series itself, the Rays arrive at Game 3 riding the momentum of a Game 2 win behind a strong performance from their pitching staff. The ALCS is tied at one game apiece.
In Other News...
Jose Ramirez's Costly Meltdown Just Opened A Big Door For Rays
The Rays got a timely boost in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series when Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez helped turn one fourth-inning sequence into a mess. Cleveland wound up handing Tampa Bay three runs in the inning, a swing that changed the feel of the game and gave the Rays a much-needed opening as the series moved forward.
Ramirez owned the mistakes afterward and said the inning was frustrating, while Guardians manager Stephen Vogt stressed that sloppy plays have to be cleaned up before the series shifts back to Cleveland. For Tampa Bay, the takeaway is simpler: a postseason inning that looked headed nowhere suddenly became a real advantage, and those are the moments that can linger if the Guardians do not tighten things up quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Blake Snell Just Reopened A Kevin Cash Debate Rays Fans Know Well
Blake Snell was back in the postseason spotlight again, and with him came a familiar Rays conversation that never seems to go away. In a recent National League Championship Series game, the Dodgers left-hander worked into the seventh inning before Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell went back-to-back for Milwaukee, changing the feel of the game in a hurry and reminding everyone how quickly October can turn on one decision.
For Tampa Bay fans, the debate is unavoidable because Snell has become the face of a long-running theory about pitchers losing effectiveness the deeper they go into a lineup. His career numbers have been used to illustrate that third-time-through-the-order danger, and every time a manager decides to keep him in, it pulls old Rays memories right back to the surface. Dave Roberts choice to stick with him only sharpened the parallels, even if the comparison still leaves plenty for Rays fans to argue about. [Read more 🡒]
Bryan Baker Is Giving The Rays A Huge October Edge
A tight Game 2 win over Cleveland did more than even the American League Championship Series for the Rays. It also kept turning the spotlight toward Bryan Baker, who finished off the 3-1 victory and continued to look like one of Octobers most dependable late-inning arms for Tampa Bay.
Bakers latest save was his fourth of the postseason, and it added another layer to what has become a remarkable run of work at the back end of games. The Rays have leaned on him to protect slim leads in the postseason, and with each clean outing he keeps widening the gap between solid relief and something a little more singular. [Read more 🡒]