After having the start time moved up with some bad weather looming, the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians faced off in a pivotal Game 3.
In what was a bit of a surprise, it was Griffin Jax who got the start for the Rays in Game 1. Tampa Bay elected to pass on Nick Martinez in favor of Jax. In the second inning, Cleveland was able to strike first.
Following a great at-bat by Jo Adell to work a walk, an RBI double that took a funky bounce off the wall by Nathaniel Lowe was able to bring him home.
It took until the fourth inning for the Rays to get a base-runner, with Yandy Diaz ripping a double in the gap. Tampa Bay would build some momentum following that double. Gavin Williams was able to get out both Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, but a walk to Victor Mesa Jr. set the table for Chandler Simpson.
The exciting speedster of the Rays was able to knock both runs home with a triple to give Tampa Bay the lead.
Unfortunately for the Rays, they were unable to hold the lead for long. In the bottom of the fifth inning, it was Petey Halpin who was able to hit a two-run home run to give the Guardians the lead once again. For Jax and Tampa Bay, allowing a two-run home run to the number eight hitter in the lineup was far from ideal.
Battle of the Bullpens
Despite having just 70 pitches, Cleveland elected to pull their ace Gavin Williams after just five innings of work and turned things over to the bullpen.
The Rays also had to go into their bullpen early, and it was Tyler Wells who came in and pitched two scoreless innings for the team.
Even though it was a bit surprising to see Williams pulled earlier than expected, the Guardians didn't have a problem getting to their setup man Hunter Gaddis with the lead in the eighth inning. The right-hander would allow a double to Richie Palacios, and after getting Taylor Walls out, the Guardians turned the ball over to Cade Smith to face Yandy Diaz in a marquee matchup with a runner on third and two outs.
In a fantastic 10-pitch at-bat, it was Smith who got the best of Diaz and struck him out with a 98-mph fastball.
After Wells, Steven Matz was able to come in and keep Tampa Bay in the game with an impressive two innings of work.
With some of the best sluggers in the lineup up in the ninth inning, Smith was able to put them down in order and Cleveland took a 2-1 lead in the series.
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