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Plenty of sports fans in Ohio were facing a tough decision on Saturday night thanks to two huge games involving teams based in the state that were slated to be played at the same time, but they got a merciful reprieve thanks to an assist from the fates.
The Cleveland Guardians won the first game of their ALDS showdown against the Detroit Tigers last weekend but found themselves facing elimination due to an untimely slump that saw the team go 20 innings without scoring a run.
However, they were ultimately able to force Game 5 with a 5-4 win on Thursday night to send the series back to Progressive Field for the deciding tilt.
That do-or-die showdown was scheduled to get underway at 8:08 PM on Saturday, which wasn’t exactly ideal when you consider the highly anticipated primetime matchup between #2 Ohio State and #3 Oregon was slated to kick off around 30 minutes before the first pitch.
There are plenty of people who have multiple televisions and other devices that make it possible to watch both of those games at the same time, and there was little doubt bars in Ohio would be filled to the brim with people who headed there on Saturday night to make sure they’d be able to keep tabs on each of them at the same time.
With that said, there were also plenty of fans of the Guardians and the Buckeyes who were going to be forced to pick one game to devote the bulk of their attention to, and on Friday, they got some fantastic news when the MLB announced it had opted to push the start of Game 5 to 1:08 PM due to weather that’s expected to descend upon Cleveland on Saturday night.
Saturday’s decisive ALDS Game Five between the @CleGuardians and @tigers at Progressive Field has been moved up to a 1:08 p.m. (ET) start due to the forecast for inclement weather in Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/Hg24nNSIxF
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) October 11, 2024
Shoutout to Mother Nature for stepping up.