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Game four of the American League Championship Series has been postponed because of rain rescheduled for Saturday 8 Eastern in Cleveland, which means the Rays and Guardians would potentially play four straight days. Game five will be played on Sunday just after 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Then no travel day. Back to St. Pete for games six and seven on Monday and Tuesday. Cleveland has a 2-1 series lead. Welcome in former Marlins president David Samson helped the club win the World Series in 2003. Hey, let's welcome in former first round pick Lewis Brinson, who is also alongside. And Lewis, you hear the decision made by Major League Baseball to postpone this
game. It comes just after 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. The decision kind of puzzled us because why wait so long to make the decision when it's been raining all night long? The obvious. We want to sell hot dogs and beers. Duh. With all the fans. No, I think it was just more of a can we get this game in. It's a playoff game, right, Hakee? Uh, we want to get this game in. The fans are here. Uh, we want to make sure that these players also have the best conditions to play and ultimately no window. There's always a window, right, Dave? There's always a window to play, but um, not on tonight.
We knew there was going to be some weather in the area. Um, but I think it was a great decision to bang this one, move it on to tomorrow. Uh, you just don't want to you want to see these guys best, right? You want to see these guys get their best foot forward. You don't want guys stepping in puddles. You don't want guys getting hurt, especially in an important game like this. So, I commend MLB for pushing this game to tomorrow. What do you make of how long the decision made? Cuz got fans sitting around in the ballpark and yeah, they're enjoying the festivities of singing in the rain and eating the good food there in Cleveland, but like what are we doing here? Like, let's let's make the decision.
I'm actually surprised that they postponed the game after an hour cuz they really did want to get this game in. The Guardians certainly were interested in the postponement and the Rays, I'm sure, wanted to play, but MLB is in charge. MLB was looking at the weather, but they also were looking at the condition of the field. The drainage was an issue. They had not worked on the infield or the pitching mound since yesterday's game. They didn't want to have the teams go back to back to back, which is what they're going to have to do. And they also had to make Sunday basically an afternoon game. So, all of that said, I'm surprised they only waited an hour when they decided to postpone this around 900 p. p.m.
Eastern. And no change here with the starting pitchers. David Cleveland going to go with Shawn Armstrong as their opener in a bullpen game. Nick Martinez will start for the Rays on Saturday. So, it's almost as we're playing a little chess match between Steven Vote and Kevin Cash here. I'm shocked because I am absolutely skipping Martinez and I'm going back if possible to Rasmuson and it is possible because it would be around regular rest and I'm not going to bullpen game. The only thing Lewis that occurs to me is that they're going to piggyback Griffin and let Griffin go four or five innings tomorrow because there's no way I'm doing a bullpen game when I've got to go four days in a row
potentially. I don't want to spend my bullpen that day. Yeah, I'm kind of on the same kind of brain wave as you, David. Um I feel like with Griffin being on or be on uh regular rest, maybe he'll be in a piggyback role or why not start him uh tomorrow if this game getting postponed. Um obviously maybe the um the Cleveland Guardians want to just utilize their bullpen, utilize a bullpen game, get some length out of Griffin. Um, obviously like you said, they're going back to back if they have to go back uh to Tampa Bay, but kind of a strange thing. Why not just go ahead and skip the bullpen day and just go ahead and start? Griffin had a great
start in game one. Uh, kept him in that ball game. Uh, so little bit of a strange kind of thing for me, but maybe they just want to stick with their guns. So, David, who does this favor more having this day being skipped and not being played? To me, it favors the Guardians, assuming Griffin gives me the bulk of the innings. If we are here tomorrow night and we're going through a spring training box score where Cleveland is rolling out seven arms, win or lose, I'm despondent because the Guardians should take advantage of this postponement and align their pitching to give their bullpen maximum rest. They've got the two-1 series advantage. If I am the Cleveland front office, I do not
want to go back to Tampa. I want to fly directly from Cleveland to Milwaukee. It's way closer and so I want to get game four and they got the postponement they wanted. Now take advantage of it. Lewis, from a players perspective here, right? You're going to the ballpark every day. You know that the weather forecast isn't looking great. Uh you've had to deal with this throughout the season on a regular basis. What's the mindset for the players now as they head back to their apartments and their hotels? The Rays having to head back. what is their mindset now getting that rest for on this night but now having to go back and realize you're gonna
potentially play four straight days. Yeah, obviously everybody's, you know, dealing with something at this point in the season. So, it gives you another day to kind of treat whatever you're going through, but just to take you in the mind of a player going to the ballpark. Obviously, everybody knows that there's weather coming in, right? There might be a postponement. We might have a delay tomorrow. So, everybody be prepared for that. But at the same time, these are important games. So at the you want to have that mindset of you don't want to lose that edge, right? Once we start to get weather in and any player can kind of tell you from that perspective once you start to see and
probably a possibility of us getting delayed, us maybe not playing, your mind starts to switch off a little bit. But in these situations, you try to stay locked in. You try to not eat so much in the kitchen, right? Um but for for position plays, you try not to take too many swings in the cage. But it's a mind game almost, right? you have to stay locked in just in case they're like, "All right, guys. We're starting in another hour or we're starting in 30 minutes, 45 minutes." Obviously, the players and coaches and everybody in that dugout and clubhouse knows more information a lot earlier than everybody in the stands. But as a player, that mindset starts to switch once you see
weather in there. But now going back to your hotels again, guys can have another day of rest, another day off their feet, another day to recover and recuperate uh from any injuries that are going on because we know at this point in the season, nobody is 100%. Um but at the same time, you have the energy, you have the juice, the adrenaline, you want to get these games in. And obviously Cleveland want to keep that home field advantage. They will have two more games at home. Uh but I think it's just another day coming from a player. I think it's another day to just recover whatever it is that you're going through. All right, for the sake of this conversation, because I hope that they don't even have to go to St. Pete, I
hope the Rays go back to St. Pete. That's the only team that goes there. But what will that be like, David, from a front office perspective and the travel day on Sunday? Game is played at 5. You can potentially think it'd be over about 8. What does that look like in terms of a travel schedule and the logistics getting down to St. Pete? So, Cleveland was going to head, if they had to go to Tampa, Tampa was going to leave after the game. Remember the game five was supposed to be tomorrow and that's when the travel day they'd leave tomorrow and then you'd have a workout on the off day in St. Pete. The way it'll work tomorrow, first uh Sunday, pitch at 508. If there is a game coming
up Monday, generally the rule of thumb is about 2 to 2 and 1/2 hours after the game, the equipment truck would make its way to the airport and you can get wheels up generally in the 2 and 1 half to three hour range. Let's say you take off at roughly 11:15 p.m. about 2 and a half hours. You're getting in at 1:30 quickly to the hotel. There's a table with your room keys on it. A Porter brings your bag up. Sometimes players wait to the next morning to get their bag. So, they're going to bed on the late side, but again, it's not a game till 8:00 come Monday. So, they won't have to report to the field until, you know, 1:00 2 3 4:00. So, plenty of time to rest, no doubt. But the question is for the pitching arms. It's not about
position players. And Lewis can tell me if I'm wrong. These guys go back to back and get to cities late all season long. No big deal. Yeah, I think he's spot on with that. Position players. We're used to playing, you know, getting in a city at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, especially if there's a delay or any kind of extra innings or anything, we get to another city, we know we have to play the next day. With pitchers, it's a little bit different. guys have guys usually have routines. Um sometimes guys will fly out early if they have to fly if they have to start the next day, but
everybody's obviously staying with the team here. Um but yeah, I think on the pitching side, we worry about arms. Obviously, these guys have a lot of traction on their arms at this part in the season, but I think from a position player standpoint, you're just fine. It's another travel day. Yeah, it's late in the season. Yeah, you're dealing with a bunch of injuries. Yeah, you know, we had to, you know, push a game back and, you know, it is what it is. But from a position player uh standpoint, it's just another late night getting in and it's another adjustment that you have to make and it's you're you're used to it that at this point, right? You've been going through it all year. Uh you're used to it at this
point. So, they'll have plenty of time to rest and recover and get back to Tampa if they need to get back to Tampa and play that game six or game uh game five. Game six. Yes. Yeah. I just hope this doesn't have a negative effect on Cleveland because last time I was in Cleveland in a playoff game, game seven of the 2016 World Series, we had Rain in Cleveland and then the Cubs won the World Series. Time to move on because of uh Well, I'm I've moved on. Really trying to move on. I've moved on. I'm just saying that I hope this doesn't hurt the team that I grew up rooting for in the franchise because of rain. But look, I know I
grew up in Northeast Ohio. I know what the weather's like in October, so I'm not surprised. They don't deserve a ring if they can't make it through a rain delay. I'm sorry. I'm just going to say it right now. You're right. Thank you for saying that. Are you still picking the Guardians to win the series? Yes. Thank you. No, I'm not the Rays six. It was my pick when the series started. Why would I change now? Well, because you were wrong on the Dodgers in six, so might as well get one of them, right? Right. Lewis Guardians
and five, Guardians and six. What do you got? I had the Rays win in this series. The Guardians look great. And uh for your sake, Hakee, I hope I'm wrong, but in my sake, I think the Rays go ahead and pull it out. I think Junior wakes up and I think uh they get the job done. I'm going to stick with my guns here, but the Gardens do look good. Do look great. All right. Well, we'll have to wait at least another day for game four of the ALCS. David Samson, Lewis Princeton here with us on CBS Sports HQ. Men, thank you for waiting it out through the rain. All right. So, here's a look at the updated
schedule. Rescheduled for Saturday, 8 Eastern, game 5 Sunday, just after 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Then Monday and Tuesday, back in St. Pete for game six and seven if necessary. Cleveland has a 2-1 series lead.
