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Rainout with Indians could become nightmare for Tigers

Rick Osentoski / Reuters

DETROIT - What Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona calls an "inconvenience" could be part of a major travel nightmare for the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit's game with Cleveland on Thursday was called off after more than six inches of rain fell on Comerica Park in less than 24 hours.

The two teams, in concert with the umpires and Major League Baseball, waited 4 hours, 13 minutes before postponing the game.

It will be made up Monday afternoon, if necessary.

It will be necessary if an American League wild card berth is at stake for Detroit or if Cleveland can claim the top seed in the league to get home-field advantage throughout the post-season.

He and Detroit manager Brad Ausmus toured the field with umpires right around the time of the scheduled 1:10 p.m. scheduled start, part of about a two-hour period where the rain was light or non-existent.

The same rain system that truncated Detroit's 6-3 victory over Cleveland after five innings Wednesday night was still in place Thursday and was slated to stick around through Saturday.

Detroit travels to Atlanta to close its regular season schedule with an inter-league series against the suddenly hot Braves, who are playing their last games at Turner Field. The Tigers will have to play all three games without designated hitter Victor Martinez, who bats cleanup, in their starting lineup.

The Tigers could play five games in five cities in five days. They will close the regular season Sunday in Atlanta and if there's a chance they could make one of the wild card berths (or Cleveland could qualify for best record in the league) they would return to Detroit to play the Indians in the makeup game.

There could be a wild card tie-breaker Tuesday, the wild card playoff game Wednesday and the first divisional game on Thursday.

"I'm aware of it," Ausmus said, "but one thing at a time. If that's the scenario, then that's a good thing. That's a good problem to have."

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