Houston Astros right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. had his American League Championship Series start pushed back a day because of a celebration-related cut on his pitching elbow.
The Astros will turn to right-hander Cristian Javier to make his first career postseason start in Game 3 on Saturday night against the host New York Yankees. Houston has a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“Unfortunately, after the victory in Seattle (Saturday), I caught a spare champagne bottle to the elbow bone,” said McCullers, who instead will take the hill for Game 4 on Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.
McCullers, 29, said the team decided to give him an extra day of rest to allow the swelling to go down. Saturday’s clubhouse incident followed Houston’s marathon 18-inning 1-0 win against the Mariners in the deciding game of the AL Division Series.
“It’s really no one’s fault. It was just an accident. So, it’s not a huge deal,” said McCullers, who pitched a bullpen session Friday and is not expected to have any limitations Sunday.
“Some guy was kind of coming back behind me and the bottle just happened to kind of hit the back inside part of my elbow as the people were passing by,” he said. “It wasn’t like we were getting wild. I was standing there. He was walking by, just happened to hit me in the right spot.”
McCullers was 4-2 with a 2.27 ERA in eight regular season starts. He started Saturday’s Game 3 win at Seattle and allowed no runs on two hits over six innings, striking out seven and walking two.
Javier, 25, combined with Hector Neris and Ryan Pressly on a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium on June 25, striking out 13 batters in seven innings.
Jaiver, who went 11-9 with a 2.54 ERA in the regular season, will be making his first start since pitching six scoreless innings against Tampa Bay on Oct. 1. He is making his first career postseason start after going 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA in 12 relief appearances, including Game 1 of the ALDS against the Mariners.
–Field Level Media
