Rain Pushes ALCS Game 4 to Saturday Night in Cleveland; Guardians and Rays Could Play Up to Four Games in Four Days

CLEVELAND, OHIO — Rain postponed Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Friday night, pushing the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays back a day and erasing the series' remaining off-day.

Game 4 is now set for 8 p.m. ET Saturday at Progressive Field on TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max. Game 5 moves to Sunday at 5 p.m. ET, a day that had been scheduled as an off-day. If needed, Game 6 would be Monday and Game 7 Tuesday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

Cleveland leads the series 2-1 after a 3-2 win Thursday, when Petey Halpin hit a two-run homer and Gavin Williams struck out nine over five innings.

"It made the most sense at this point and this hour, with no guarantee that there wasn't another band coming," Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

"This is baseball. This is Cleveland," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. "We're more than used to these kinds of days."

Neither team changed its Game 4 plan. Right-hander Nick Martinez will start for the Rays; he threw 13 scoreless innings in two regular-season starts against Cleveland. Right-hander Shawn Armstrong will open for the Guardians, likely followed by a bullpen game. Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen is now lined up to start Game 5 on an extra day of rest.

Fans holding tickets for Friday's original Game 4 can use them for Game 5 on Sunday. Tickets for the originally scheduled Saturday game stand for Game 4.

The forecast for the rest of the weekend in Cleveland looks much better, according to MLB.com, though temperatures are expected to drop near 40 degrees Saturday evening.

The series winner will face the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Milwaukee hosts Game 1 of the World Series.