Yankees-Guardians ALDS Game 5 moved to Tuesday afternoon

After a wait of nearly three hours — or just short of the average length of a typical nine-inning baseball game — Monday night’s Game 5 of the American League Division Series between the Yankees and Guardians at the Stadium was officially postponed.

It will be made up at 4:07 p.m. Tuesday, with the winner headed to Houston for Game 1 of the ALCS, which starts Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park.

The Yankees intended to start Jameson Taillon on Monday but now will bring back Nestor Cortes on short rest. Cleveland could have done the same with its Game 2 starter, Shane Bieber, but early indications were Terry Francona intended to stick with Aaron Civale.

The decision to postpone was made by Major League Baseball, in consultation with both clubs. Ultimately, the final decision rested with the league.

“At no point was it ever that we expected not to play. We expected to play,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “It was supposed to be, not a window, it was supposed to clear. And then a new system popped up. We were actually wrestling with a first-pitch time [during the delay] . . . and now we had a  whole new weather system that was not in the forecast whatsoever. And that's obviously what eventually took us down.

"Weather is tricky. It's very unpredictable, but the full intention was an expectation every step of the way was we were playing the game tonight. Both teams wanted to play tonight. And then unfortunately, weather took us down.”

Why Cashman was the only one speaking publicly and not someone from Major League Baseball is a topic for another day, but regardless, MLB is sure to face some bad PR.

Not as a result of the decision itself but for allowing the gates to open to the public at 5 p.m. with little information provided thereafter. The singular exception was an announcement before 7 p.m. that the game would not be starting on time. There was no other announcement until the postponement, which brought loud boos from the sizable contingent of fans still remaining.

“That's just the worst situation to have. You feel horrible that your fans are sitting through that,” Cashman said. “They're hungry, they want to be here, they're committed, they're wanting to watch a game play out. And no one wants to have what happened tonight . . .

"No one would draw it up where they would have a situation where everybody is here, patiently waiting for something [and] the reason they were waiting was because everybody expected us to have good weather once that system cleared. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. And because of that, unfortunately, a lot of people were forced to wait through some bad, bad weather. And for that, obviously, we're sorry, there's no doubt about that.

"No one wants that for anybody. I don't wish that on our fans, ever. Nobody wants to have their customers struggle through that type of stuff. We all thought we were playing tonight."