From the HERE City National Desk
CLEVELAND — Drew Rasmussen held Cleveland to a single run over seven innings Sunday night, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Guardians 3-1 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series to move within one victory of the World Series.
Tampa Bay now leads the series 3-2 heading home to St. Petersburg for Game 6 on Monday night. A Game 7, if necessary, would be played Tuesday, and the winner opens the World Series on Friday at Milwaukee, the National League champion. Cleveland has never come back to win an ALCS after falling behind 3-2.
The Rays built their cushion early, pushing across one run in each of the first three innings. Yandy Díaz opened the game with a double to the wall in center and came home when Parker Messick walked Jonny DeLuca with the bases full. Jonathan Aranda singled in Ben Williamson in the second, and Liam Hicks dropped a soft single into center off reliever Tim Herrin to bring in Chandler Simpson in the third. Messick lasted only two innings, the shortest start of his major league career.
Rasmussen took it from there. After a two-out single by Chase DeLauter in the first, he set down nine hitters in a row and finished with six strikeouts, four hits allowed and one walk. His changeup did much of the work: he threw it 27 times to left-handed Cleveland hitters, about 28% of his 95 pitches, and none of them got a hit off it. He escaped the seventh by getting a double-play grounder.
Over three playoff starts, Rasmussen has gone 2-0 and owns a 1.29 ERA. Tampa Bay has won 14 of the 15 games he has started since the All-Star break, and over that run he has gone 11-0 while posting a 1.73 ERA.
Bryan Baker closed it out in the ninth for his fifth save of the postseason and his 35th straight successful save chance. Steven Kwan collected two of the five Cleveland hits and saved a run with a leaping grab at the center-field wall in the eighth. A win Monday would send the Rays to their third World Series and first since 2020.
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Filed under: Washington DC Sports News
