The Guardians left Tropicana Field with the American League Championship Series tied, but Game 2 will linger because one fourth-inning ground ball turned a clean start into a 3-1 Tampa Bay win. José Ramírez, normally as dependable as any third baseman in the game, watched Ben Williamson’s two-out chopper slip beneath his glove and open the door for three unearned Rays runs.
Cleveland had taken Game 1, 7-3, with a comeback on Monday. On Tuesday, the club did too much of the work for Tampa Bay, then could not find enough offense against Freddy Peralta.
Quick facts
- The Rays won Game 2 by a 3-1 score, tying the best-of-seven ALCS at 1-1.
- Game 3 is Thursday at 6 p.m. ET, with the series moving to Progressive Field for Games 3 through 5.
- Parker Messick allowed three unearned runs over five innings on six hits and two walks.
- Freddy Peralta threw six scoreless innings, yielding four singles, two walks and one hit batter.
- Cleveland went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners.
The trouble started when Messick walked Junior Caminero to begin the fourth. Victor Mesa Jr. then reached on a fielder’s choice, and Jonny DeLuca struck out, leaving the inning one out from being over.
Chandler Simpson kept it alive by beating out a high bouncer toward shortstop Brayan Rocchio. Earlier, Mesa had stayed on base after Tampa Bay successfully challenged what had first been ruled a 4-6-3 double play; replay showed Rocchio’s throw had pulled Nathaniel Lowe away from first.
That sequence mattered. On Simpson’s infield single, Ramírez shaded toward Rocchio, leaving third uncovered, and Mesa raced all the way to third. Williamson followed with a grounder on a 2-1 changeup that bounced at the edge of the dirt and turf.
Ramírez set himself for the hop rather than charging it, but the ball skipped through his legs. Mesa scored, and Liam Hicks drove Messick’s next offering into right-center for a two-run single.
“It’s frustrating,” Ramírez said through interpreter Agustin Rivero. “No one is perfect, but I feel bad because I did not make the play, and the runs came after it.”
Ramírez said the surface played a role, describing a quicker bounce at Tropicana Field and a difficult hop where the dirt meets the turf. He said he tried to smother the ball after it took an unexpected bounce.
The turf had already created an uneasy moment for Cleveland in Game 1. Yandy Díaz opened the bottom of the first with a 114.6 mph line drive that got past left fielder Steven Kwan for a double after Kwan misread its path.
Kwan said the turf can be difficult to judge, particularly for a visiting club not accustomed to it. The transition from turf to dirt, he said, does not react like a conventional grass-and-dirt infield.
Messick was charged with the loss despite allowing no earned runs in a building he visited frequently while growing up. The left-hander kept the Rays within reach through five innings, but Cleveland never broke through against Peralta.
Chase DeLauter supplied the Guardians’ only run with an RBI double in the seventh. Until then, Peralta had controlled the game with a mix that held Cleveland to four singles, while the Guardians repeatedly failed to cash in their opportunities.
The split sends the series to Cleveland with the next three games at Progressive Field. History gives Game 3 considerable weight: in best-of-seven series tied 1-1, the Game 3 winner has taken the series 71 times in 102 instances, a 70% rate. Teams that split the first two games at home under the 2-3-2 format have still won the series 50 of 90 times, or 56%.
Messick framed the path forward simply: cleaner baseball. “We gave them too many chances to take control,” he said. “If we play clean the rest of the way, I think we have a really good chance.”
Manager Stephen Vogt saw the return home as the right reset. The Guardians are heading back even at 1-1, with three games in front of their own crowd and a chance to turn one costly inning into nothing more than a hard lesson from Tampa Bay.
