Foster Griffin will take the ball for Cleveland on Monday night, opening the American League Championship Series against Tampa Bay and right-hander Drew Rasmussen. The left-hander’s first postseason start comes after he helped turn the Guardians’ Division Series around from the bullpen.
Quick facts
- ALCS Game 1 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
- The game will air on TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max.
- Griffin struck out seven in 2 2/3 innings during Cleveland’s 9-3 ALDS Game 3 win over the White Sox.
- Those seven strikeouts set Cleveland’s postseason single-game record for a relief pitcher.
- Rasmussen will start for the Rays.
Griffin entered Game 3 with Cleveland down two games to none in the Division Series and delivered 2 2/3 vital innings as a bulk reliever. The Guardians won 9-3, beginning the comeback after the early series hole.
“My only thought in the first was getting our guys back in the dugout and keeping the damage down,” Griffin said. “I liked the matchup, then it was just about continuing until the manager came to get me.”
The seven-strikeout outing was also his first appearance since Sept. 23, when he pitched in Boston. Griffin leaned on a seven-pitch arsenal, with his fastball and sweeper producing five of the seven punchouts.
Cleveland piled up 19 strikeouts in that nine-inning Game 3, a new franchise postseason high for a regulation game. Griffin’s work supplied more than one-third of that total.
The Guardians acquired Griffin from Washington at the Trade Deadline after he had posted a 3.06 ERA across 22 starts for the Nationals. His regular-season finish in Cleveland was rougher, as he recorded a 5.19 ERA in nine starts.
Still, Griffin arrives at the ALCS with an unusual background for a first-time October starter. He spent the 2023 through 2025 seasons pitching in Japan, an experience that helped prepare him for the moment waiting under the lights Monday.
