CLEVELAND -- The Rays didn’t blast their way past the Guardians in Game 5 of the ALCS on Sunday. They squeezed, poked, picked, and defended their way into a 3-1 win, then walked out of Progressive Field with a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven and a trip home one win from the World Series.
The clearest snapshot came in the fourth inning, when José Ramírez ripped a grounder up the middle that looked bound for center field. Ben Williamson had other ideas.
The Rays second baseman dove to his right, snared it, and still got the throw to first in time for the first out of the inning. The next batter, Chase DeLauter, bounced one Williamson’s way as well, and Williamson was right there again, ranging back, making the play, and firing to first for the second out.
“We get it!” another fan yelled. “You can field!”
That pretty much sums up what Tampa Bay has done to opponents all year, and what it did again to Cleveland: wear them down with ruthless efficiency in every corner of the game.
Drew Rasmussen was the headline act Sunday, silencing the Guardians bats and the crowd, but the Rays’ methodical style mattered just as much. This was the first lead of the series for Tampa Bay, and it came despite a postseason profile that doesn’t look especially scary on paper.
The Rays have hit only two home runs in the ALCS, and neither one changed much. Cedric Mullins’ solo homer in Game 1 came in a 7-3 loss, while Yandy Díaz’s two-run shot in the ninth inning of Game 4 was just insurance in another 7-3 win.
If Tampa Bay reaches the World Series while averaging 0.4 homers per game in the LCS round, it would be in rare air. Since the LCS became a best-of-seven in 1985, only the 2001 Diamondbacks (0.4), 2013 Cardinals (0.33), 1993 Blue Jays (0.33), 1987 Cardinals (0.29), 1997 Marlins (0.17) and 1990 A’s (0.0) have won pennants at a homer rate that low.
The modern postseason usually rewards the team that can win the power battle, and the numbers are stark: teams that outhomer their opponent have an .850 winning percentage over the last two postseasons, including a 21-4 mark this year. But the Rays have made their own rules all October. In Game 5, they forced Guardians rookie ace Parker Messick to labor through 57 pitches over two innings, giving up two runs, five hits and two walks.
“Hopefully [home runs] are coming,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said with a laugh. “That's what I'll take from it.
We know how good Parker Messick is. I think we took advantage of getting ourselves in some favorable counts and getting some big hits.
We probably left some opportunities out there, and then they go to the bullpen, and it's really challenging to piece together big innings when they're mixing and matching from the third or fourth inning on. But we've got a very good offense.
I'm hoping the home runs are going to start coming.”
For now, the Rays don’t seem to need them. Across Games 4 and 5, their offense woke up with a 23-for-71 showing, a .324 clip, and they went 8-for-21 with runners in scoring position. Yandy Díaz said the turnaround started between the ears.
“A positive mindset, that's the biggest thing,” Díaz said through an interpreter. “Just a positive mindset the last two nights and just being aggressive with our pitch selection, just jumping on good pitches.”
They’ve also been dangerous on the bases. Tampa Bay is a perfect 6-for-6 in steal attempts in this ALCS.
And then there’s the defense, which has been a constant headache for Cleveland. The Rays ranked second in the majors in team defensive runs saved this season with 87, trailing only the Cubs and their 115.
Tampa Bay doesn’t lean on the kind of headline-grabbing defensive stars the Cubs do with Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner up the middle. Instead, the Rays lean hard into positioning, a franchise hallmark that once helped reshape the sport before MLB moved to regulate extreme infield shifts.
Even now, they still set up differently than most clubs, often with one of their middle infielders almost directly in line with second base. Taylor Walls, Williamson and Richie Palacios all ranked below the 20th percentile in range this season, according to Baseball Savant, and still they’ve turned 80% of straightaway grounders into outs this postseason entering Game 5.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt had a blunt read on Walls after the game.
“Taylor Walls is one of the best shortstops on the planet,” Vogt said. “That's why he's in there.
He makes every play. If you hit it to him, he catches it; you're out.
And they've played some really good defense.”
Now the Rays head back to Tropicana Field having taken control of a series they were expected to win. If the bats keep waking up and the defense keeps closing off every inch of grass, the path to the pennant gets a lot shorter. The fan in the stands had it right: the Rays looked like magicians again, making Cleveland’s advantage disappear in two games.
In Other News...
Kevin Cashs Game 4 Pitching Move Changed The Rays ALCS Stakes
The Rays found a way to change the tone of the American League Championship Series in Game 4, and part of it came from a move that gave Kevin Cash a little more flexibility than usual. Freddy Peralta, who had already started and won Game 2, was available out of the bullpen for the 7-3 win over Cleveland, and Cash said the right-hander was eager to help in whatever role the team needed. Peralta handled a brief outing well, giving Tampa Bay another arm when the game tightened and helping the Rays even the series at two games apiece.
The bigger picture now shifts to Game 5, where the pitching plan becomes even more important with the ALCS hanging in the balance. Cash confirmed Drew Rasmussen will get the start, and the Rays enter the next game with a chance to take control after surviving a pivotal swing game on the road. For a club that has leaned into creative usage all October, the question is no longer just who starts, but how far Cash is willing to push his options as the series moves into its most pressure-packed stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Finally Found What They Needed With Season On The Line
With their season hanging in the balance, the Rays found the steadiness they had been searching for and forced the Guardians to keep playing under pressure. Tampa Bay mixed timely offense with crisp work in the field and enough pitching to keep Cleveland from ever fully settling in, a combination that was missing when the series tilted toward the brink.
Victor Mesa Jr. helped set the tone with a standout defensive sequence, while Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero supplied the kind of offense the Rays needed to stay alive. Nick Martinez and Foster Griffin handled the mound duties as Tampa Bay extended its lead late, taking advantage when Cleveland's defense slipped and turning a tight postseason game into one the Rays could finally control. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Turn To An Unusual Rallying Cry In Must-Win Game 4
Down 2-1 in the ALCS against the Guardians, the Rays are looking for any edge they can find as they head into a must-win Game 4, and Richie Palacios has turned to an unlikely source for motivation. He framed Tampa Bays spot against Cleveland through the lens of an NBA playoff team that faced a similar hole, using that comeback as a reminder that a series can swing fast when a club finds the right urgency at the right time.
Palacios went a step further by mapping some of the Rays own personalities onto the kind of roles that tend to drive those postseason runs, suggesting there are players in the clubhouse who fit the tough, relentless mold those teams lean on. It is the sort of clubhouse mindset that can sound like a rallying cry or a stretch depending on how the game goes, but for the Rays, the bigger point is simple enough: they need Game 4 to feel like the start of something, not the end. [Read more 🡒]