Cleveland Indians at Toronto Blue Jays: ALCS Game 3 GameThread

Trevor Bauer was supposed to start Game 2 of the ALCS for the Cleveland Indians, but the 25-year-old starter suffered a drone-related injury to a finger on his pitching hand that led to the right-hander being pushed back to tonight’s Game 3.

“I think we've all, probably everybody in here probably at some point or another had a drone-related problem,” manager Terry Francona joked when he met with reporters to discuss the injury.

“I mean, he loves doing -- we know that. He was just, I think, like -- I think he said routine maintenance. And again, I have no idea what that is. But he cut his pinky finger on top. Fortunately it was on top. There's a couple bright spots in the fact that, okay, it happened. We had enough days off between series where [Josh] Tomlin -- we can just flip-flop them. And in the grand scheme of things, as long as Trevor is okay, in the grand scheme of things, all it is is us flip-flopping them. We have to win four games, anyway. And they were going to pitch twice.

“The challenge for the doctors will be to make sure this thing, by the time he pitches, has healed enough where it's not bleeding. And we're fortunate that Dr. Graham is actually here in Cleveland, and he's one of the best in probably the world. And he's really confident that by the time his turn comes around he'll be okay.”

Bauer brought the drone in question with him to the press conference when he met with reporters before Game 2 of the series, which the Indians won to take a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Is that the culprit right there?” a reporter asked upon seeing the drone.

“Yeah, I brought my friend to answer any questions about what happened that I can't answer,” Bauer said.

He went on to explain his fascination with drones, which is apparently Star Wars-related.

“I think it's a fairly well-known thing about me and I'm a big nerd,” Bauer explained.

“And I like ‘Star Wars’ a lot. So in 2013 I saw a video of these drones with the LED lights on the back of them racing through the forest and it reminded me of the scene on Endor where they're driving the speeder bikes, and I said, ‘That looks awesome, I've got to learn how to do that.’

“So I started teaching myself about it, reading up about it,” he continued.

“I was a mechanical engineering major in college, technology and physics and stuff like that has been a passion of mine my entire life. And this is just a great outlet for me to kind of get away from baseball a little bit and enjoy technology.

“I custom designed this entire frame, I designed it on a CAD program, 3-D printed some of the parts with my 3-D printer, put it together by myself, assembled it myself, the whole process. Like I said, it's kind of my escape, and I've been doing it for three or four years, two years, three years, actually. And this is the first time anything like this has happened.”

[ed. note - “I really wish Bauer was available when the Nationals picked 6th overall in 2011, though I’m okay with the fact that they ended up with Anthony Rendon.”]

He’s back on the mound tonight, starting Game 3 in the Rogers Centre in Toronto, as the Blue Jays try to avoid falling behind 3-0 with Marcus Stroman on the mound.

Here are the lineups for tonight’s ALCS matchup...