One night after letting Game 1 slip away, Tampa Bay leaned on its starter and on Cleveland’s mistakes. The Rays beat the Guardians 3-1 at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, so the American League Championship Series heads north tied at a game apiece.
Freddy Peralta set the tone. The right-hander, who arrived from the New York Mets in a midseason deal, blanked Cleveland across six innings on four hits with six strikeouts. He was throwing harder than he ever has: the 99.4 mph fastball he fired at Jo Adell in the middle innings was the fastest pitch of his career, from a pitcher who sat around 94 during the regular season. By the time he struck out Petey Halpin to end his outing on pitch No. 99, the 32,125 fans were chanting his name.
The only scoring for Tampa Bay came in a fourth inning that Cleveland would rather forget. A replay challenge turned an apparent double play into a single out. José Ramírez, the hero of the division series, then left third base uncovered, and moments later a routine grounder from Ben Williamson skipped under his glove. Liam Hicks made Cleveland pay, lining a single into right-centre that brought two more runners home. None of the three runs counted as earned against Parker Messick, a first-year left-hander who attended Rays games here as a kid.
Cleveland finally broke through in the seventh when Chase DeLauter doubled into the corner. Ian Seymour stranded the tying runners by fanning Adell, worked a clean eighth, and Bryan Baker closed it out for his fourth save of the postseason. Junior Caminero added some swagger with a leaping grab of a Steven Kwan liner, followed by a finger wag.
The loss snapped a four-game playoff winning streak for the Guardians. Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland, with neither club having named its starter yet.
