The Rays ALCS lead is now one win away from becoming a pennant. Tampa Bay secured a 3-1 victory over the host Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, taking a 3-2 lead in the American League Championship Series and putting the Rays on the doorstep of a series win and a third AL pennant in franchise history.
After wins on back-to-back days in Cleveland, the Rays head home needing just one win in two games to earn a trip to the World Series — where the Milwaukee Brewers, fresh off their sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS, already await.
Former Brewers pitcher Drew Rasmussen was nails again for the Rays, holding the Guardians to just one hit until the sixth inning. Rasmussen, who flirted with a no-hitter against the New York Yankees in the divisional series and delivered a strong start in Game 1 of this series, allowed one earned run on four hits over seven innings. A Chase DeLauter RBI groundout in the sixth accounted for the only Cleveland score.
It was the kind of October pitching performance that defines postseason legacies. Rasmussen attacked the strike zone from the first pitch, mixed his offerings expertly, and never let a Cleveland lineup that had been dangerous all series find any rhythm. By the time he handed the ball to the bullpen, the Rays were in complete control.
Tampa Bay’s offense did its damage early, scoring single runs in each of the first three innings. Jonny DeLuca drew a bases-loaded walk in the first, Jonathan Aranda singled in a run in the second, and Liam Hicks added an RBI single in the third. Cleveland starter Parker Messick lasted just two innings, yielding five hits and two walks with two earned runs and three strikeouts.
The Rays will presumably turn to Freddy Peralta to try to seal the series Monday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Peralta’s story is one of the postseason’s best subplots: Milwaukee’s 2025 ace, traded from the Brewers to the New York Mets in the offseason and then to the Rays at the trade deadline, threw six shutout innings in Game 2 and made a brief relief appearance in Game 4. Now he gets the ball with a chance to eliminate his former organization’s conquerors and send Tampa Bay to face the Brewers in the Fall Classic.
The scheduling quirk of this series — no off day for travel because of an October 16 rainout that pushed games into October 18, originally slated as a series off-day — means both bullpens are running on fumes. That makes Peralta’s ability to work deep into the game even more critical.
For Cleveland, the math is simple and brutal: win twice on the road or go home. The Guardians’ offense, which carried them through the regular season’s second half, has managed just one run in each of the last two games. Something has to change in a hurry.
A Rays pennant would be the franchise’s third, and it would set up a fascinating World Series: Tampa Bay’s analytical, bullpen-driven machine against a Milwaukee team that just swept the mighty Dodgers. The Brewers will have the rest advantage, having closed out their series earlier, but the Rays have the momentum of back-to-back road wins in a hostile environment.
For a franchise that has consistently contended on one of baseball’s smallest payrolls, another trip to the World Series would be validation of an organizational model the rest of the sport studies and envies. One more win, and Tampa Bay gets its shot at the ultimate validation.
The atmosphere expected at Tropicana Field on Monday night will be unlike anything the dome has hosted in years. Rays fans, long stereotyped — unfairly, players insist — as indifferent, have packed the building throughout this October run. One more win would send the franchise to its third World Series and set up a tantalizing matchup with a Milwaukee team that knows this Tampa roster all too well.
Web story: Rays Beat Guardians 3-1, One Win From World Series