CLEVELAND — For the second time in four days, the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox had a game postponed at Progressive Field because of rain and/or cold.
The scheduled opening day game on Monday was postponed until Tuesday and was won by the Red Sox 6-2. Cleveland won Wednesday’s game 7-6, but Thursday’s series finale was postponed because of inclement weather. No makeup date for the game has been announced.
The Indians left for Chicago, where they will begin a three-game series with the White Sox on Friday. Boston flew to Toronto for the start of a three-game series with the Blue Jays on Friday.
The two scheduled starting pitchers for Thursday’s game, Danny Salazar for the Indians and Joe Kelly for the Red Sox, will start for their respective teams on Friday.
One Indians pitcher who won’t be starting any time soon is Trevor Bauer. He has started 57 games for the Indians in the last two seasons but at the end of spring training was informed that he was being moved into the bullpen.
The Indians told Bauer that they decided to insert Cody Anderson and Josh Tomlin into the last two spots in the rotation, behind the first three of Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Salazar.
“He was mad, which we expected, but not disrespectful, which is important,” manager Terry Francona said of Bauer’s reaction when he was told of his demotion.
“It’s just new,” Bauer said of the challenge of moving to the bullpen. “It’s different. Any time something changes, it’s just different. It takes awhile to get used to.”
Bauer had a good spring training statistically, which made the decision somewhat of a surprise.
“He had a pretty good spring, but it can’t just be by spring training innings. We tried to weigh everything because this is an important decision,” Francona said.
Bauer is out of minor league options, so sending him to Triple-A Columbus to could continue to start was not an option.
“He knows he’s not being banished. He’s going to help us (as a starter) at some point,” Francona said. “You don’t go through a whole year with just five starters.”
Should one of the five starters get injured or pitch poorly enough to warrant a change, Bauer would obviously be the leading candidate to go back into the rotation.
Until then, Bauer said he’s going to be a good soldier.
“When they tell me to go pitch, I’ll go pitch. Whatever they decide my role is, that’s what I’ll do. That’s the definition of being professional, right?”
NOTES: RHP Boston’s Kelly makes his season debut Friday night after going 8-0 in his final nine starts of 2015. His eight-game winning streak is tied with Texas’ Cole Hamels for the longest active streak in the American League. … Red Sox 3B Travis Shaw, who was born in Washington Court House, Ohio, a three-hour drive south of Cleveland, has a career .433 batting average (13-for-30) vs. the Indians. That’s the second highest career average vs. Cleveland for active players with a minimum of 25 plate appearances against the Indians. … Indians RHP Carlos Carrasco has struck out five or more batters in 19 consecutive starts, dating to June 13, 2015. That’s the second longest active streak in the majors behind Clayton Kershaw (34). It’s also the second longest streak in Indians history behind Bob Feller’s 28-game streak from Sept. 9, 1945, to July 20, 1946.