Drew Rasmussen gave the Rays the kind of October start that changes the shape of a series. Tampa Bay’s right-hander worked seven disciplined innings Sunday night at Progressive Field, steering the Rays past Cleveland, 3-1, in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series and putting his club ahead three games to two.
The Rays will carry a chance to clinch their third World Series berth back to Tropicana Field for Game 6 on Monday night. First pitch is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, with TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max carrying the game.
For Rasmussen, it was another familiar entry in a second-half run that has made Tampa Bay nearly unbeatable on the days he takes the ball. Since appearing briefly in relief during his second All-Star Game, he has made 15 starts. The Rays have won 14 of them, including the opening game of the AL Division Series against the Yankees and now this pivotal Game 5 against the Guardians.
He scattered four hits, issued one walk and struck out six. Cleveland managed a two-out Chase DeLauter single in the first, then watched Rasmussen retire nine straight and 14 of 15. The Guardians finally got on the board in the sixth, using two singles and a groundout to produce their only run.
Tampa Bay had supplied an early cushion, and Rasmussen made it stand. Cleveland put only six balls into play beyond the infield against him. Statcast credited the Guardians with three hard-hit balls, two of which became outs.
“The way he limited anything was really, really impressive,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
The changeup showed up when it mattered
Rasmussen’s work was a sharper version of his Game 1 effort in this series. He had struggled to find the feel for his newer changeup in that earlier meeting, but the pitch became a key weapon Sunday. He threw it 27 times to Cleveland’s left-handed batters, a career-high 28 percent of his 95 pitches, and did not allow a hit on it.
“It’s probably been the single greatest addition I’ve made to my repertoire in the entirety of my career,” Rasmussen said of the changeup.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt saw the difficulty from the other dugout. Rasmussen mixed three different fastballs with the changeup, making the ball hard to square up even when Cleveland worked counts in its favor.
“Three fastballs and a really good changeup,” Vogt said. “I thought we worked some good counts against him. I thought we laid off some tough pitches. But it’s really hard to square up with three fastballs like that, and he had them all working.”
The seventh inning supplied the final test. In Game 1, Rasmussen’s night had unraveled when Patrick Bailey led off the seventh with a tying homer, ending the starter’s outing before he recorded an out in the frame. This time, Nathaniel Lowe opened the inning with a single, but Rasmussen retired Travis Bazzana and then got Bailey to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
As the double play settled the inning, Rasmussen stepped away from the mound, looked toward the Rays’ first-base-side dugout and let out a yell. His bullpen finished off the 3-1 win, but the starter had already authored the decisive part of the evening.
“Just what he’s been doing all year,” Tampa Bay infielder Ben Williamson said. “Just lights out.”
Yandy Díaz went even further, praising Rasmussen’s command and pitch selection while calling him the best pitcher in the Major Leagues. The numbers make a sturdy case for how dominant he has been since the All-Star break: an 11-0 record, a 1.73 ERA, 99 strikeouts and 18 walks across 93 2/3 innings.
Including the postseason, Rasmussen’s 15-start stretch places him in rare company. The last Major League pitcher to record such a span in one season with an ERA below 1.75, no personal losses and no more than one team defeat was Logan Webb for the 107-win Giants in 2021.
Rasmussen also joined Webb in another October distinction. His Game 5 effort gave him two postseason starts of at least seven innings while allowing one run or fewer, something no other Rays pitcher has done twice. Both have come within his last three outings. He is also the first Tampa Bay pitcher to post three consecutive quality starts in the postseason.
The Rays have spent the series trading wins with Cleveland through the first four games. Sunday was supposed to be the Guardians’ turn by that pattern. Rasmussen had other plans, and now Tampa Bay is one victory from a pennant.
