NEW YORK — Prior to the scheduled Game 5 of the ALDS on Monday night, Jameson Taillon’s last start was so long ago that Aroldis Chapman was still on the Yankees’ roster. In fact, Chapman was the winning pitcher in that game, which the Yankees won in Texas on Oct. 4.
But with drizzly weather moving the game back to Tuesday, all signs indicate that Nestor Cortes will start instead. In a truly bizarre and frankly ridiculous move, this was announced by Guardians’ manager Terry Francona, as Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone was nowhere to be found after the postponement was announced. The Yankees’ public relations team later confirmed this, which could have all been easily handled with a two minute news conference. For the cherry on top, roughly 20 minutes after everyone was told to go home, the rain came to a complete stop.
Cleveland is listing their Tuesday starter as “TBD” with the expectation that Aaron Civale, who was scheduled to open things on Monday, will also be their first pitcher on Tuesday. The rainout does leave the door open for Guardians’ ace Shane Bieber to pitch in some capacity, though he’ll be on three days rest just like Cortes. In Friday’s Game 2, Cortes logged five innings on 92 pitches while Bieber went 5.2 on 101 pitches. Neither pitcher can or should be realistically expected to throw more than 40-50 pitches on Tuesday at the absolute maximum.
