Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer will miss his scheduled start in the second game of the American League Championship Series after cutting his pitching hand on one of his drones (AFP Photo/Maddie Meyer)

Los Angeles (AFP) - Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer will miss his scheduled start in the second game of the American League Championship Series after cutting his pitching hand on one of his drones.

"You know, it's kind of self-explanatory -- I think we've all, probably everybody in here probably at some point or another had a drone-related problem," Indians manager Terry Francona quipped at his press conference before game one of the series on Friday.

Francona said Bauer told him he was doing "routine maintenance" on the machine and cut his pinky finger.

That means right-handed hurler Josh Tomlin will start game two in Cleveland on Saturday and Bauer, who received several stitches to his right little finger, will start game three in Toronto on Monday.

"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," Francona said.

Francona acknowledged that in his long career he'd never before run across a drone injury.

"You could have given me a lot of guesses, and I wouldn't have probably got this one," he said, adding that he didn't think Bauer was behaving recklessly in indulging his hobby as his team prepared to begin its best-of-seven battle with the Toronto Blue Jays for a World Series berth.

"He could have been opening a box in the kitchen," Francona said. "Things happen."