Cleveland turned to Shawn Armstrong for Game 4 of the AL Championship Series on Friday night, while Tampa Bay lined up Nick Martinez to start the other side of a matchup that now carries a 2-1 series edge for Cleveland. The opener and the starter were set against a weather clock, with the game scheduled for 8 p.m. ET after a two-hour delay.
That is why fans searching for where to watch Tampa Bay Rays vs Cleveland Guardians are looking at a game that changed before the first pitch. Cleveland won Game 3 on Thursday afternoon after Petey Halpin hit a two-run homer, and the start time then moved back two hours after the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series on Thursday night.
Armstrong’s assignment fits the role he has carved out this month. He is making his fifth appearance this postseason and has allowed only one hit in 5⅓ innings with five strikeouts, a sharp line for a pitcher who returned during the final week of the regular season after a calf strain in late July. Martinez brings a different profile. He started Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the New York Yankees, went 3⅔ innings and allowed two runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. During the regular season, he went 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA and ranked third in the AL with 26 starts in which he allowed three runs or fewer.
The weather remains the part no one can control. Rain was expected in Cleveland for most of Friday, but there was still a window between 8 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET that could allow the game to be played, even though both teams had delayed their pitching plans because of the forecast. An ALCS game had not been postponed since 2019, which leaves Friday night in a narrow band between delay and disruption.
Armstrong said before Thursday’s game that coming back here and being in this position was hard to put into words. Martinez sounded equally direct, calling it a dogfight and saying his job was to keep getting outs for his team. If the weather holds, Cleveland will try to protect its lead with an opener and Tampa Bay will try to answer with a starter who has already been through this stage once before. If it does not, the first question is no longer who pitches, but whether Game 4 starts at all.
