The Guardians finally hit a wall Saturday night.
After three games of bending and surviving, Cleveland’s pitching couldn’t keep Tampa Bay’s biggest bats quiet forever, and the Rays rolled to a 7-3 win in Game 4 at Progressive Field to knot the American League Championship Series at 2-2. The series now shifts back to Tropicana Field in St.
Petersburg, Fla., with Game 5 set for 5 p.m. Sunday.
From there, the schedule turns around fast: Game 6 is Monday and Game 7, if needed, is Tuesday. There’s no built-in rest, thanks to Friday’s rainout. And with the series even again, the numbers say this is anyone’s race - teams that reach 2-2 in a best-of-seven have gone on to win 48% of the time, 33 of 69.
For Cleveland, the game turned in a brutal seventh. The Rays, who had been held mostly in check by the Guardians through the first three games, suddenly looked like the lineup that has powered them all month. Yandy Diaz, Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero combined to go 6 for 14 with a homer and five RBI after managing just 5 for 34 earlier in the series.
That inning started with Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls, batting eighth and ninth, both reaching on singles against Tim Herrin and Slade Cecconi. Tampa Bay then pulled off a double steal before Cecconi struck out Diaz.
Aranda followed with a single to right, allowing Palacios to score. Chase DeLauter then overran the ball in right field, a costly mistake that let Walls come home and Aranda move to third.
Chandler Simpson’s sacrifice fly made it 5-1, and the game had slipped away.
Cleveland did make a push in the eighth. Travis Bazzana launched a homer into the right-field bleachers to trim the deficit to 5-2, and three straight singles from Patrick Bailey, pinch-hitter Angel Martinez and Brayan Rocchio loaded the inning with momentum. That rally produced one more run and cut it to 5-3, but the Guardians couldn’t keep the pressure on.
Diaz shut the door in the ninth with a two-run homer to right off Matt Festa, who was making his first postseason appearance.
The Rays had already taken the lead for good earlier in the sixth. Junior Caminero doubled off Daniel Espino to put Tampa Bay ahead 2-1, capping a sequence that began after Espino struck out Diaz to end the fifth with the score tied. Then Aranda and Simpson walked to open the sixth, and even after Espino got two quick strikes on Caminero, the third baseman lined a 98-mph fastball into the left-field corner to drive in Aranda.
Herrin stepped in and bailed Cleveland out of the mess. He got Ben Williamson to bounce into a 6-4 force at the plate, struck out Victor Mesa Jr. and retired Jonny DeLuca on a pop-up.
DeLauter’s night swung sharply in both directions. He gave the Guardians their first lead in the opening inning with a single to right that brought home Steven Kwan from second.
Kwan had started the inning with a single to left off Rays starter Nick Martinez, then moved up on a wild pitch. After Jose Ramirez popped out, DeLauter lined a 3-2 pitch into right for the 1-0 edge, though he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.
Jo Adell ended the inning with a fly ball to the warning track in left.
That first-inning run mattered because it was the first the Guardians had scored off Martinez in 14 innings this season. During the regular season, Martinez went 2-0 against Cleveland with 13 scoreless innings.
Cleveland’s pitching looked sharp early, too. Shawn Armstrong, used as an opener, worked around Travis Bazzana’s error at second base for a scoreless first.
Foster Griffin followed and retired five straight Rays, four of them on strikeouts, before Diaz doubled with two outs in the third. Aranda then tied the game with a single through the middle, his first hit of the series after going 0 for 11 in the ALCS.
Griffin settled back in from there. He got Simpson to end the third on a force at second, then handled a two-out single by Victor Mesa Jr. in the fourth.
Petey Halpin provided the defensive highlight of the inning, racing back to steal extra bases from Caminero with a lunging catch at the wall in straightaway center. Halpin slammed into the wall but held on.
Griffin later induced a double play from Walls to open the fifth, then handed things off after 3 2/3 innings. He allowed one run on two hits, struck out five and continued a strong postseason run - 15 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings over three appearances.
But the Rays kept coming. Martinez gave them a solid start, and Freddy Peralta, who started Game 2, even came out of the bullpen and worked two-thirds of an inning as Tampa Bay leaned all the way in to chase the split.
Now the series is level, the venue flips again, and neither club has announced a starter for Game 5.
In Other News...
Guardians Put Their Trust In A Risky ALCS Game 4 Plan
Rain has already pushed Game 4 of the American League Championship Series into a delay, but the Guardians are still set on taking a calculated approach once play resumes. Holding a 2-1 edge over the Rays, Cleveland plans to piece together the matchup with a bullpen game, with Shawn Armstrong lined up to get the start in a move that says plenty about how the club views this moment in the series.
Tanner Bibee voiced confidence in the pitching group before the weather intervened, a reassuring note for a team asking a lot of its arms at a high-stakes point in October. The plan leaves little margin for error, especially against a Tampa Bay lineup looking to even the series, but Cleveland has made clear it trusts its depth enough to lean into the gamble rather than back away from it. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Fans Just Got An ALCS Curveball They Didn't Need
Rain forced a familiar October inconvenience onto the schedule Friday, pushing Game 4 of the ALCS back to Saturday and reshuffling the rest of the series with it. The delay means Game 5 has been moved to Sunday, wiping out what had been an off-day and turning the weekend into a quick turnaround for fans who had already mapped out their plans around the original calendar.
For Cleveland, the timing adds another layer to a series that already feels tense and finely balanced. The Guardians carried momentum from their Game 3 win, sparked by Petey Halpins key home run, and they are planning to go with Shawn Armstrong as an opener in the next game. Now the challenge is not just about matchups on the field, but about handling a schedule that suddenly asks everyone involved to pivot on short notice. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians ALCS Momentum Is Suddenly In MLBs Hands
Rain hung over Progressive Field before first pitch of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, turning the evening into a waiting game for the Guardians and Rays. League and team officials met to review the weather and field conditions, and with no official start time announced, Clevelands chance to keep the series moving was suddenly in the hands of the forecast.
If the game does not go forward as planned, it would likely be pushed to Sunday, with Saturdays matchup still on the schedule. For the Guardians, who are trying to ride postseason momentum at home, the delay adds another layer of uncertainty to a series that has already become a test of patience as much as execution. [Read more 🡒]