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NEW YORK (AP) — With the Houston Astros one win from reaching the World Series again, Game 4 of the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees will not start on time Sunday night because of the threat of rain.
Major League Baseball announced the impending delay on Twitter an hour before the scheduled 7:07 p.m. first pitch and said it was possible the game could get postponed until Monday.
“We continue to evaluate the conditions and will provide another update by 7:00 p.m.,” MLB said.
Six minutes later, an announcement was made for fans in the ballpark.
Lance McCullers Jr. was set to pitch for the Astros, looking for a four-game sweep. Houston is 6-0 this postseason and closing in on its second consecutive American League pennant and fourth in six years.
“It’s a very exciting time for me and the organization,” said 73-year-old manager Dusty Baker, still seeking his first World Series title. “These guys have come to expect winning. Winning breeds winning.
All-Star lefty Nestor Cortes was slated to start for the slumping Yankees, who mustered only four runs and batted .128 with 41 strikeouts in the first three games of the series.
In major league history, only one of 39 teams facing a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series has stormed all the way back to win — the Boston Red Sox did it against the rival Yankees in the 2004 ALCS on the way to their first World Series title in 86 years.
“We watched that video today, oh yeah,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “We sent it out to all our coaches and (got) it out to our players.”
Thirty clubs that were up 3-0 completed sweeps.
With the tarp covering the Yankee Stadium infield all afternoon, neither team took batting practice outdoors on a damp, windy evening. Light rain fell intermittently, and several Astros players played catch and jogged in the outfield.
The large video screen in center field showed Game 5 of the NL Championship Series in Philadelphia, where the Phillies and Padres played through rain about 90 miles away.
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