The Tampa Bay Rays forced the Cleveland Guardians to win or go home in their home ballpark, and the Rays closed the door on Cleveland’s World Series dreams to advance to the Fall Classic for the third time ever after Monday’s 7-3 win.
It was a bold strategy for the Guardians to decide to roll with a bullpen game in an ALCS elimination game, and unfortunately for Cleveland, the bullpen game giveth, and the bullpen game taketh. The pitching plan certainly did not go as manager Steven Vogt planned, and the AL Central champs ended up needing three arms just to get through the second inning alone. By the time they brought in their eighth pitcher of the game,it felt like everyone in their bullpen made an appearance at some point. As for Tampa Bay, righthander Freddy Peralta held the Guardians to just one run over 5 1/3 innings while manager Kevin Cash was able to rely on his relievers for the last few stanzas to shut Cleveland down and send the Rays to the World Series to face the National League juggernaut in the Milwaukee Brewers.
Both offenses were active throughout the game, tallying seven hits apiece, but the Rays blasted two, two-run bombs to combat their 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and eight left on base, while the Guardians went 1-for-6 and left nine stranded. Tampa Bay even attempted to hand the game over to Cleveland in the eighth after walking and hitting back-to-back batters with the bases loaded and cut their lead down to two, 5-3, but the Rays bullpen prevailed tonight while the bats flourished in big moments to secure the series.
Peralta was excellent regardless of his three walks, and caused Cleveland batters to whiff 14 times (35% whiff rate), with nine of those coming from his fastball. The righty’s fastball was on fire in Game 6, accounting for two of his three strikeouts while averaging at 97.1 mph, nearly 3 mph higher than his 94.3 mph average throughout the season. On top of that, the one run that he surrendered this evening was the lone run allowed in his 12 innings tossed during the series, ending the series with a 2-0 record, 0.75 ERA, and the ALCS MVP award.
It also helped that Tampa Bay provided plenty of run support for their pitchers, which proved to be extremely important after a near-collapse in the top of the eighth inning. Three of Tampa’s seven hits were for extra bases, and all three of them tallied two runs a pop: a double from Richie Palacios in the second, and a bomb each from Yandy Díaz and Junior Caminero, while Jonny DeLuca’s sacrifice fly accounted for the seventh run.
After Junior Caminero mashed his two-run shot in the bottom of the seventh, the Rays held a four-run lead, 5-1, with just six outs needed to end the game. Tyler Wells had entered the game for Tampa and though he navigated two outs, both Chase DeLauter and Nathaniel Lowe reached base and caused Cash to bring in Ian Seymour. That choice was almost detrimental to the Rays, as Seymour quite literally handed Cleveland a pair of runs solely because he couldn’t throw a strike, but thankfully Kevin Kelley shut that down by striking out Brayan Rocchio to get out of the inning. Watching Rocchio strike out on a pitch in the dirt rather than take the lead on a grand slam was quite beautiful to witness, because had that been the White Sox you just know that’s what would have happened.
The unsung hero of the game for the Rays was Taylor Walls, who reached base four times including three walks: the perfect output and patience from a nine-hitter. His third walk of the night in the bottom of the eighth was the catalyst of the Yandy Díaz shot heard around the world, which erased the two runs that Cleveland had just earned, and effectively sealed the series.
While I still firmly believe it should have been the White Sox losing to the Rays, it was an exciting series and is almost a relief to know that the Guardians only played four more games than the South Siders did. The Fall Classic will kick off Friday night, October 23, in Milwaukee, in a battle of the small markets right before a lockout. Baseball really can be beautiful.