Tribe and Sox Delayed: Line-Ups for when/if they eventually start

Hurricane Matthew is looking to be a major problem during this post-season as it already lead to the delay of a Dodgers-Nationals game Saturday and will likely push back the Indians start time from the originally scheduled 4:00 PM. At the moment, it appears that the game could still take place, although it would likely be a night game rather than an afternoon one. From Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe:

An MLB spokesman said just now that it doesn’t look good but they’re going to wait a bit. Stay tuned.

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) October 9, 2016

Should the two teams get this game in, the Indians line-up would look a little something like this:

This is exactly the same line-up as game one against Rick Porcello as the Terry Francona will do his best to match-up against the right handed Clay Buchholz. Josh Tomlin is scheduled to start for the Tribe and, should this game not happen, one would have to wonder if he would still pitch in a make-up game.

Currently, the plan is to have Tomlin pitch on Sunday, then if they are needed, Trevor Bauer would pitch on Monday and Corey Kluber on Wednesday. This would leave Bauer and Kluber available for games one and two of the ALCS should the Indians sweep. If Sunday’s game is cancelled, the Indians may still go with Tomlin in game three (this would keep Bauer on regular rest rather than the originally planned three games in between) and keep the rest of the rotation the same.

For Boston, things would certainly change. They would still likely use Buchholz in game three, but would be able to bring back Porcello for a potential game four and David Price for game five, avoiding using their fourth starter, Eduardo Rodriguez, at all in this series. Their line-up if game three takes place on Sunday looks like this:

This is the same line-up that the Sox went with in game two after having Benintendi and Bradley flipped for game one. What’s interesting is that the bottom of the line-up has actually been more productive for the Sox than the middle as Leon and Benintendi knocked in two of their four runs while Betts and Ortiz have gone a combined 2 for 14. Bradley, Jr. and Pedroia have combined for a pretty successful inning ending duo as they are 1 for 14 through two games with nine strike outs.

While the Red Sox offense may fare better against Tomlin than they did against Bauer or Kluber, Tomlin’s night is expected to be short no matter how well he is pitching. Most likely, it will be like game one again with the Tribe’s bullpen coming out as early as the fourth with all hands on deck after having Saturday off and only using Dan Otero and Bryan Shaw Friday.

Update: The third game of the ALDS was postponed Sunday and will be played at the originally scheduled time for game four, 6:00 PM Monday. Should a game four need to be played, it will take place Tuesday, a day that was originally scheduled as an off day. Bauer and Buchholz are still scheduled to pitch game three, although Porcello will likely replace Rodriguez in game four as mentioned earlier.