If the Rays wanted this series to return to St. Petersburg and not worsen their odds in this series, a win in Game 4 was of the utmost importance. Cleveland has Parker Messick and Gavin Williams looming large, and going down 3-1 would put the club behind the 8-ball needing to sweep out to go back to the World Series.
Early on, it did not appear the Rays had the matching sense of urgency as the first trip through the lineup resulted in zero batted balls leaving the infield and five strikeouts, including four consecutive from the sixth through nine spots of the lineup. The Guardians went up 1-0 early in the first inning, but the inning could have been bigger if not for Victor Mesa Jr making another fantastic throw from right field to nail Chase DeLauter at second base who assumed the slipping Mesa Jr could not throw him out. He chose poorly:
After that first inning, the game moved along with Nick Martinez settling in and retiring 11 consecutive batters at one point while Foster Griffin continued to befuddle the Rays until a two-out double by Yandy Diaz and a single by Jonathan Aranda tied the game in the third. The fourth inning saw Junior Caminero hit a ball 110.7 MPH that traveled 410 feet at a 29 degree launch angle. In the history of StatCast, there were 180 such instances of similarly batted balls and all 180 left the yard. Caminero’s would not be 181 in the cool weather and a bad route but great catch by Petey Halpin:
The middle innings brought about some failures in execution by both squads. Richie Palacios would open the frame with an infield single, but would be erased when Taylor Walls failed in two attempts to get a sacrifice bunt down before grounding into a 6-4-3 double play. The Guardians would go 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame thanks to their own double play after a walk to set up a pivotal 6th inning. Stephen Vogt brought in Daniel Espino to finish off the 5th inning hoping to recapture his dominant performance from Game 3. Espino rewarded that faith by striking out Diaz to end the 5th inning, but gave it back in the 6th inning with consecutive walks to Jonathan Aranda and Chandler Simpson. Caminero would again smash a ball 110+ MPH, but this time, nobody could catch it and the Rays took a 2-1 lead putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with
Espino went back to the same high fastball he used to make Caminero look silly in Game 3, but this one came in at 98 rather than 101 and Caminero got on top of it and pulled it down the line. It was impressive to see Caminero make the quick adjustment after several undisciplined hacks in the previous game to rise to the moment. Unfortunately, that would be the last run of that inning as the Guardians snuffed out a contact play before Mesa Jr struck out and DeLuca popped out:
DeLuca would be lifted after the inning for Cedric Mullins, so the younger outfield may have had an injury setback because the move, in the moment, seemed oddly timed given the similar defensive abilities of the duo.
The Much like Game 2, the Cleveland defense helped Tampa Bay’s offense get off the mat when things appeared to have stalled out in the 7th inning. Palacios opened the frame with another infield single that Bryan Rocchio could not cleanly field. Taylor Walls then singled on a fly ball to Chase DeLauter that was reminisicent of the misplayed flyball by Spencer Jones in the American League Divisional Series. The Rays would immediately take advantage of the two baserunners who should not have been on base when Jonathan Aranda drove in both guys with a single that snuck under DeLauter’s glove in right field allowing Aranda to come all the way around to third base:
Chandler Simpson then followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to four runs. That extra cushion came in handy when the Guardians put together an impressive two-out rally in the 7th. Ian Seymour struck out Jo Adell and retired Nathaniel Lowe before allowing a solo shot to Travis Bazzana followed by three consecutive singles by Patrick Bailey, pinch-hitter Angel Martinez, and Brayan Rocchio. Kevin Cash stuck with Seymour in the moment with lefty Steven Kwan up, and Kwan did Seymour a huge favor by attempting to slide into first rather than run through the bag and was the third out of the inning:
The Rays got some of that cushion back in the 9th inning with an inning that resembled many fans have seen throughout the season. Palacios led off with a single, Walls got the sacrifice bunt down, and Yandy Diaz elevated and celebrated:
The Rays took a rough first time through the order and made the necessary adjustments the subsequent times through to look more like the regular season version of the club that won 97 games rather than the one who has struggled to hit through the first three games of this series. More importantly, this win assures that this series ends, one way or the other, in Tropicana Field. The fact Cash employed Freddy Peralta on three days rest to put out the fire in the 6th inning and used Bryan Baker in the 9th with a four-run lead underscores his desire to avoid being down 3-1 and turning this into a best-of-three series with two games at home.