Drew Rasmussen had the Guardians pinned down for six innings Monday night in St. Petersburg, but Cleveland turned the seventh and eighth into the swing points of a 7-3 Game 1 victory over the Rays in the American League Championship Series.
The result
The Guardians, coming off a comeback from an 0-2 deficit in the AL Division Series, have now won four straight postseason games. They opened the ALCS by erasing a Rays lead that had looked secure through most of the night.
Rasmussen reached 90 pitches after six strong frames, with Chase DeLauter’s opposite-field homer the principal blemish. Tampa Bay sent its ace back out for the seventh, and Patrick Bailey greeted him with a first-pitch drive to right-center that traveled 436 feet. It was the longest home run of Bailey’s Major League career and brought Cleveland even.
Nathaniel Lowe delivered the go-ahead hit in the eighth, shooting a two-run single through the middle to bring home DeLauter and José Ramírez. The Guardians then added three runs in the ninth to put the final shape on the 7-3 score.
Cleveland’s bullpen gave the lineup time to find its footing. Foster Griffin worked four innings and allowed two runs, while Daniel Espino, Joey Cantillo, Hunter Gaddis and Erik Sabrowski each covered an inning. Cade Smith handled the ninth.
The Rays entered the series after a 98-win regular season and as the American League’s top club, but they will now have to answer the first loss of a series that shifts to Cleveland for Games 3 through 5 after Tuesday.
Game 2 is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, with coverage on TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max.
The opener also brought some long-view stakes into focus. Tampa Bay, in the Major Leagues since 1998, has reached the World Series twice, in 2008 and 2020, without winning a championship. Cleveland’s championship drought stands at 77 seasons, the longest active wait in MLB.
Historically, a 1-0 lead has mattered in a best-of-seven postseason series: clubs taking the opener have won 127 of 197 such matchups, or 64 percent. In the current 2-3-2 format, road teams that won Game 1 have taken 41 of 73 series, a 56 percent rate.
