Rays Beat Guardians 3-1 to Even ALCS as Ramirez Error Proves Costly

Updated 12:31 UTC, October 15: Game 3 is today in Cleveland with the series tied 1-1. First pitch at Progressive Field is 1:10 p.m. ET. Major League Baseball moved the start up from the original 6 p.m. because rain is in the forecast for Thursday evening, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

Cleveland starts Gavin Williams, who threw 5 and two-thirds scoreless innings with one hit and 12 strikeouts in Game 5 of the Division Series against the Chicago White Sox, tying the club's single-game playoff strikeout record. Tampa Bay starts Griffin Jax. Pregame markets had Cleveland favored at about minus 130, with a total of 6.5 runs. Those are pregame lines, not a score. The final score will replace this note after the game.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 on Tuesday night to even the American League Championship Series at one game each. All three Tampa Bay runs were unearned. All three scored in one inning the Guardians should have walked out of clean.

Freddy Peralta threw six scoreless innings for Tampa Bay, and closer Bryan Baker retired the side in order in the ninth. The series moves to Cleveland for Game 3 on Thursday.

One grounder changed the night

Cleveland starter Parker Messick kept bending without breaking for three innings. He escaped early jams behind two double plays, and the fourth looked finished too, until a call changed it. A double-play ruling was overturned on review, with Victor Mesa Jr. ruled safe at first, and the inning lived on.

Two outs later, Ben Williamson bounced a routine grounder to third. Jose Ramirez, the Guardians' franchise player, let it through. Mesa scored. On the next pitch, Liam Hicks lined a two-run single up the middle, and Tampa Bay led 3-0.

Messick's line tells the story of the night: three runs allowed, none of them earned, on six hits and two walks. Ramirez was visibly furious with himself in the dugout, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Peralta slams the door early

Peralta gave Cleveland nothing. Six innings, four hits, no runs, two walks, six strikeouts, a playoff career high for innings pitched. Across 10 and a third innings this postseason, he has allowed one run.

Cleveland's only push came in the seventh. Ramirez flew out with two runners on, one more chance gone, and rookie Chase DeLauter kept his hot October going with an RBI double that scored Patrick Bailey and cut the lead to 3-1. With the tying runs in scoring position, left-hander Ian Seymour struck out Jo Adell to end the inning.

Seymour handled the eighth as well. Baker then took the ninth and ended it fast: a strikeout of Bailey, a flyout from Brayan Rocchio, and a groundout from Steven Kwan.

What it means

Cleveland stole Game 1 on the road and still flies home level, with three of the next four scheduled at Progressive Field if the series goes the distance. Tampa Bay, the league's top seed at 98 wins, protected its park after the opening loss.

One note for Thursday: Ramirez owned Game 1 with three hits. In Game 2 his glove wrote the headline instead. Players of his level tend to answer. Game 3 will show it.