Cleveland turned to Shawn Armstrong for Game 4 of the AL Championship Series on Friday night, making the right-hander the opener for a postseason game that now carries the weight of both the score line and the sky. Tampa Bay will counter with Nick Martinez, if the weather allows the game to start as planned.
The Guardians take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 after Petey Halpin’s two-run homer helped send them to a 3-2 victory in Game 3 on Thursday afternoon. That is why the Cleveland Guardians score is getting attention now: one swing shifted the series, and another pitching plan followed the next day.
Armstrong’s assignment fits the kind of role he has worked into this October. It will be his fifth appearance this postseason, and he has allowed only one hit in 5⅓ innings with five strikeouts. He was back in the final week of the regular season after believing his year was over in late July because of a calf strain. That return now puts him on the mound, or at least at the front of it, in one of the biggest innings Cleveland has had all year.
Martinez brings a different kind of workload to the matchup. He started Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the New York Yankees and went 3⅔ innings, allowing two runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. During the regular season, he went 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA, sixth in the AL, and was third in the league with 26 starts in which he allowed three runs or fewer. Cleveland and Tampa Bay are leaning on pitchers who have already shown they can absorb pressure, even if the path to first pitch is far from certain.
That uncertainty has been hanging over the night for hours. The start time for Game 4 was moved back two hours to 8 p.m. ET because it is supposed to rain in Cleveland most of Friday, and the best window for play may be between 8 and 11 p.m. ET. An ALCS game has not been postponed since 2019, but the delay in announcing the pitching plans showed how close the clubs were already cutting it. Cleveland's bullpen game makes sense because the team has trusted a rotating chain of short outings this postseason rather than asking one starter to cover a game in a series that can shift fast. Armstrong is the first name on that chain Friday, but the weather still owns the final say.
If the rain eases enough, Game 4 will begin at 8 p.m. ET with Cleveland trying to protect its 2-1 lead and Tampa Bay trying to reset the series behind Martinez. If it does not, the night becomes another test of patience for a game that already changed once before anyone threw a pitch.
