If Game 1 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians taught the Tampa Bay Rays anything, it was a realization that their offense would have to run deeper than just their top three facing a team that was eerily similar to themselves.
It’s fair to say the Rays border on being over-reliant on their top three hitters. Yandy Diaz’s contact-oriented, table-setting presence and Jonathan Aranda’s penchant for finding ways on base set Junior Caminero up beautifully to clear the bases. It’s a formula that worked all season, but the postseason is testing that.
Game 1 exposed a soft underbelly when light-hitting middle-infield duo Ben Williamson and Taylor Walls found themselves overmatched in high-leverage situations. Suddenly, Tampa Bay’s defense-first hitters that had carried them so far this season looked to be an Achilles' heel in crucial October moments. The next night, they responded.
Where Diaz, Aranda, and Caminero had just one hit between the three of them, it was the unsung Rays who came up big. A two-out rally in the fourth was first fueled by classic Chandler Simpson small ball before Ben Williamson did what these Rays do best. He put the ball in play.
Unheralded Rays helped lead team to Game 2 win
Where Cleveland expected the same light hitters to bail them out of jams, the Rays responded in Game 2 with their style of baseball that drives opponents crazy. Williamson’s ground ball was botched by the usually sure-handed Jose Ramirez at third base, giving Tampa Bay a run and the momentum rolling.
Then it was up to Liam Hicks. The keen-eyed catcher the Rays gave up three prospects for at the deadline hadn’t been looking like himself lately and had been moved down in the lineup.
Perhaps, with some pressure off and knowing he had a simple task to just get the runners home, Hicks stroked a beauty of a single to right. Those three runs would be all that Freddy Peralta and the Tampa Bay bullpen would need.
Game 2 reminded Cleveland of the sneaky strength that has powered the Rays all season: their ability to create rallies out of thin air. Extra hustle to beat out grounders, rarely going down the way of the K, and testing fielders constantly until they trip up are in Tampa Bay’s DNA.
Of course, the top of the lineup still has the brunt of responsibility to carry the slack, but Tuesday night proved that there’s creativity in every way the Rays can score.
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