The Rays snapped out of their quiet stretch at the plate just in time.
After three games of an offense that looked stuck in neutral, Tampa Bay put together 11 hits and backed a strong night from the pitching staff to beat the Guardians 7-3 in Game 4 of the ALCS. The series is now tied 2-2, which means there will be a Game 5 at Tropicana Field on Monday night.
It did not start smoothly in Cleveland. In the first inning, the Rays went down without much trouble, even with Chandler Simpson reaching on an error.
The bigger concern came with Nick Martinez making his ALCS debut and not exactly looking settled. He allowed a run on two hits, but the longer counts, the wild pitch, and the general lack of crispness made the inning feel more precarious than the score alone suggested.
One of those hits never should have felt ordinary anyway. Victor Mesa, Jr. turned in a spectacular defensive play, sliding to snag deLauter’s hard liner and then firing a perfect throw to second to catch the runner for an out.
Martinez steadied himself after that rough beginning. By the time the Rays came up in the third, Cleveland still held just a one-run lead, and Tampa Bay answered with two two-out hits to tie the game. Yandy’s double set it up, and an RBI single followed right after.
The Rays had a little bad luck in the fourth, and if this were a Yankees game there would have been plenty of arguing that it should have counted as a run.
They kept pressing in the fifth. Junior came through with another hard hit, this one measured at 110.2 mph, and it dropped in for a double. With Aranda and Simpson both walking ahead of him, that double drove in the go-ahead run.
Tampa Bay had runners on and nobody out, and it looked like there was more damage available. Instead, Simpson was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice when Ben Williamson grounded to Cleveland first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who was positioned about 10 feet from the plate. Then Victor Mesa Jr., after working the count full, chased a pitch in the dirt for strike three.
Martinez returned for the sixth, but after issuing a walk, Kevin Cash made the move to Freddie Peralta. The choice was a surprise, but Peralta gave up a walk and got through the inning.
The game opened up in the seventh. Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls both singled, then pulled off a double steal.
That set the table for Jonathan Aranda, whose single brought them both home. Chandler Simpson added a rare line-drive sacrifice fly, and suddenly the Rays were sitting on a 5-1 lead.
Ian Seymour entered to pitch the bottom half, and the inning got messy fast. He worked through two outs without much stress, but then Travis Bazzana launched a home run and the Guardians followed with what felt like a parade of singles. By the time the inning ended, the Rays’ lead had shrunk to 5-3.
They took the tension out of the final inning. Richie Palacios singled again in the ninth, and Yandy Diaz capped the night with a two-run homer that no one in the ballpark seemed to have pegged for the seats until it kept carrying, kissed the top of the wall, and dropped into the stands. It was an opposite-field homer, naturally, from Yandy, and it pushed the margin to 7-3.
Bryan Baker handled the ninth and faced the minimum three batters. His fastball sat just under 93 mph, a step below his usual average of about 95.5, leaving open the question of whether the 46-degree first-pitch temperature had something to do with it or whether the velocity dip is something more. There was also some late-game lineup curiosity, with Mullins coming in for Johnny DeLuca, even though DeLuca is a perfectly good centerfielder and the move didn’t make much sense.
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 🡒]