The Rays have become renowned for being on the cutting edge of baseball strategy, making up for their lack of financial might by innovating new ways to win that are eventually adapted by the rest of the major leagues. The most prominent of those is avoiding letting their starting pitchers face the opponents’ batting order a third time, based on the statistical evidence that their effectiveness is reduced the more times a hitter gets to face them.
It’s ironic, then, that Drew Rasmussen and the Rays are leading the charge for starting pitcher longevity in these playoffs.
Only five times has a pitcher completed at least seven innings in the 2026 postseason. In the Rays’ 72 playoff games in franchise history, a pitcher has done so only eight times. And after Tampa Bay’s 3–1 win over the Guardians in Game 5 of the ALCS, giving the Rays a 3–2 series lead to put them on the brink of the World Series, Rasmussen finds himself on both lists multiple times.
Rasmussen allowed just one run on four hits and one walk over seven innings while striking out six, quieting Cleveland’s bats and its crowd alike while keeping his postseason ERA at 1.29. He leads all MLB pitchers in innings pitched (21) in these playoffs, and has become October’s breakout hurler by efficiently carving his way through opposing lineups while keeping the ball on the ground—he induced 10 groundouts and one flyout on Sunday.
In his first postseason start this year (Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees), Rasmussen became the first pitcher in Rays history to complete eight innings in a playoff game, and the first pitcher in MLB history to hold the Yankees hitless beyond six innings in a postseason game. It also made him the only Rays pitcher besides Shane McClanahan to complete seven innings in the postseason in the last 12 years.
The 31-year-old stood in stark contrast on Sunday to opposing starter Parker Messick. Messick needed just two innings to pass the 200-inning mark in his rookie season, and lasted just long enough to do so, laboring through 57 pitches and allowing the only two runs Tampa Bay would need to win. The southpaw had to throw 31 pitches to escape a first inning that included a bases-loaded walk for the first run of the game. By the time he got his fifth out, he’d already allowed five hits and two walks for two earned runs. Rasmussen, meanwhile, stood at 57 pitches thrown after four innings of nearly flawless work.
Even when the Guardians started to build traffic against Rasmussen later in his outing, Rays manager Kevin Cash trusted his starter to work his way out of it in a manner he never has before. Cleveland had five plate appearances with the tying run up at bat against Rasmussen in the sixth and seventh innings. The only time a run scored was off a groundout by Chase DeLauter in the sixth.
Rasmussen has been underrated on the national stage. He owns the fifth-lowest ERA (2.76) among starters since 2021, behind only Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2.61), Paul Skenes (2.62), Shohei Ohtani (2.68) and Chris Sale (2.74). He led the American League this season in WHIP (0.91) and K/BB (5.44). And though he missed sizable chunks of the 2023 and ’24 campaigns due to elbow surgery, he’s now completed six consecutive seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA.
Tampa Bay will need its other arms to step up to close out the ALCS at home and advance to the World Series. But if the Rays get there, they’ll know who to call on in Game 1 thanks to a pitcher who’s achieved workhorse status on the team that’s perhaps the least likely to produce one.
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