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Is Mother Nature helping Tribe, or Red Sox?
- Updated: October 9, 2016
BOSTON — Mother Nature did her part to ensure that the Large Father (that would be “Big Papi,” David Ortiz) and the 2016 Red Sox live to see at least another day.
Now we’re left to wonder if her actions, in the form of a steady pelting of raindrops and a big chill, will have any impact on the outcome of this American League Division Series between Ortiz’s Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians.
Look, you can’t predict baseball any more than you can predict the weather, but Sunday’s postponement of Game 3, which will now take place on Monday evening at Fenway Park (6 ET, TBS), certainly felt like a positive development for the Red Sox, if only because the Indians’ bullpen has, as intended, been an X-factor in this series.
Game Date Time Matchup TV/Highlights Gm 1 Oct. 6 CLE 5, BOS 4 Gm 2 Oct. 7 CLE 6, BOS 0 Gm 3 Oct. 10 6 p.m. CLE @ BOS TBS *Gm 4 Oct. 10 6 p.m. CLE @ BOS TBS *Gm 5 Oct. 12 6 or 8 p.m. BOS @ CLE TBS *- If necessary | All times listed ET • Division Series start time scenarios • Red Sox vs. Indians ALDS coverageShop for postseason gear: Red Sox | Indians
Now the criteria for whom to use and when has potentially been altered.
Terry Francona’s awesomely aggressive use of the ‘pen allowed the Tribe to take Game 1, then Corey Kluber’s seven-plus innings combined with a big lead in Game 2 to give the relief corps — specifically, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen — a break before the off-day.
Now it’ll go down on the official record as two off-days between Games 2 and 3, which means that if this series goes the distance, it will wrap with three games in three days.
Three games in three days? In the regular season, that’s called par. But it’s no secret that the Indians were in good position to take advantage of the odd Division Series slate — with the two-on-one-off-two-on-one-off format — to offset the absences of Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar from …