Rays Beat Guardians 3-1 in ALCS Game 2 Behind Peralta to Even Series

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Key Points

  • Tampa Bay beat Cleveland 3-1 in Game 2 at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night, tying the American League Championship Series at one win apiece.
  • Freddy Peralta threw six scoreless innings with six strikeouts on 99 pitches and hit 99.4 mph, the fastest pitch of his career.
  • All three Rays runs came with two outs in the fourth, on a José Ramírez error and a two-run single by Liam Hicks.
  • Game 3 is Thursday at 6 p.m. ET at Progressive Field in Cleveland, on TBS, truTV and HBO Max.

The Tampa Bay Rays answered their Game 1 loss with a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians in ALCS Game 2 on Tuesday night, evening the best-of-seven American League Championship Series at 1-1 behind six scoreless innings from Freddy Peralta.

Every Tampa Bay run came in one two-out burst in the fourth inning at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. A grounder that looked like the third out skipped through the legs of Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez, and Liam Hicks followed with a two-run single, according to the MLB.com game story.

What happened

The first three innings were scoreless as Peralta and Guardians starter Parker Messick traded zeros. The fourth turned on small margins. Junior Caminero walked to open the inning, and Victor Mesa Jr. reached first on a force play after the Rays won a replay challenge that wiped out a potential double play.

Jonny DeLuca struck out, but Chandler Simpson beat out a grounder to shortstop that moved Mesa to third. Ben Williamson then hit a ground ball to Ramírez that looked like the third out. It took an in-between hop and went through his legs, scoring Mesa, with Simpson taking third and Williamson second.

Hicks lined the first pitch he saw to center field, bringing both runners home for a 3-0 lead. He finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs, according to the official MLB box score. Because of the error, all three runs were unearned against Messick, who allowed six hits and struck out three over five innings.

Peralta handled the rest. He allowed four hits and two walks, struck out six and threw 99 pitches, ending the sixth by striking out Petey Halpin as the Tropicana Field crowd of 32,125 chanted his name. His 99.4 mph fastball to Jo Adell in the fifth was the hardest pitch of his career, and he threw 29 pitches at 97 mph or faster after averaging 94.3 mph with his fastball in the regular season, MLB.com reported.

Latest development

Cleveland finally scored in the seventh. Kevin Kelly walked Patrick Bailey and allowed a one-out single to Steven Kwan, and after Ian Seymour replaced him with two outs, Chase DeLauter doubled to right to bring Bailey home. Seymour struck out Adell to strand two runners and keep the lead at 3-1.

Seymour added a perfect eighth, and closer Bryan Baker retired the side in order in the ninth for the save, getting Kwan on a grounder to shortstop for the final out. The game took 2 hours, 42 minutes.

“José Ramírez is as good as any third baseman there is in the game, and we were fortunate to maybe catch a break there,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told MLB.com. “But once you catch the break, it’s about what you do with it. Liam picked us up in a big way.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt credited the Rays for pouncing. “They’ve done that all year,” he said. “When they smell blood, they take it and run.”

Why it matters

Tampa Bay avoided heading to Cleveland in an 0-2 hole. The Rays led the American League with 98 wins and swept the New York Yankees in the Division Series, but they lost Game 1 to the Guardians 7-3 on Monday night.

The series is now effectively a best-of-five, with Cleveland hosting the next three games. The Guardians had won four straight games before Tuesday, a run that included rallying from a 0-2 deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox in the Division Series, MLB.com noted.

History offers the Rays a slight edge. Teams with home-field advantage that split the first two games of a seven-game series have gone on to win 55 of 102 times, including 24 of 40 times in the League Championship Series, according to MLB.com.

What happens next

Game 3 is Thursday, Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. ET at Progressive Field, with national coverage on TBS, truTV and HBO Max and Spanish-language coverage on Univision and TUDN, according to MLB’s schedule. Games 4 and 5 are also in Cleveland, Friday at 6 p.m. ET and Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. If needed, the series would return to Tropicana Field for Games 6 and 7.

MLB lists Griffin Jax as Tampa Bay’s probable Game 3 starter. Cleveland’s starter was not yet listed on MLB’s Game 3 page as of early Wednesday.

Catch up on how the series began in our Guardians-Rays ALCS Game 1 coverage, or revisit how Tampa Bay got here with its Division Series sweep of the Yankees.

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