Some at-bats flip a game on its head.
Petey Halpin knew it. So did everyone else.
Halpin launched a two-run homer off Griffin Jax in the fifth inning, punctuated it with a bat flip that quickly became the image of the game and turned a one-run Tampa Bay Rays lead into a 3-2 Cleveland Guardians lead that never moved again.
For Tampa Bay, that was the swing they hoped to deliver instead of receive.
The Rays had spent the first three innings getting nowhere against Gavin Williams. He retired the first nine
hitters he faced and struck out five as Tampa Bay failed to put a runner on base.
Cleveland had more opportunities against Jax, but the Rays kept limiting the damage.
José Ramírez walked in the first before Liam Hicks threw him out trying to steal second. Jo Adell opened the second with another walk, and Nathaniel Lowe followed with a double into right field that brought Adell home for a 1-0 lead. Lowe reached third with one out, but Jax kept him there.
Ramírez created another chance with a two-out single and a stolen base in the third, but Chase DeLauter grounded out, leaving him stranded on second.
That gave the Rays enough room to make one inning count and take a win and the lead in the series.
Yandy Díaz opened the fourth with Tampa Bay’s first hit, a double into left field. Williams responded by striking out Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, putting the Rays one out away from wasting their first real chance. Victor Mesa Jr. drew a walk to keep the inning alive and bring Chandler Simpson to the plate.
Then Chandler Simpson finally broke through with a triple into right field, scoring Díaz and Mesa and flipping the game from a 1-0 deficit to a 2-1 Rays lead.
For the first time all afternoon, Tampa Bay had something going in a way that felt like the beginning of a wave that could lead to victory.
It lasted three outs.
Jax retired Cleveland in order in the fourth, but Patrick Bailey opened the fifth with a ground-ball single that deflected off the Rays right-hander.
Then came Halpin.
He drove a ball into right-center field for a two-run homer and immediately let everyone know what he thought of it with a dramatic bat flip celebrating Cleveland taking back the lead.
Just like that, Tampa Bay went from finally getting to Williams to chasing the game again.
Brayan Rocchio singled after the homer, ending Jax’s afternoon. Tyler Wells entered and got some help from Hicks, who threw Rocchio out trying to steal second. Ramírez later added another single, but Wells struck out DeLauter to keep the deficit at one.
The Rays pitching staff did everything it could from there.
Wells struck out the side in the sixth. Steven Matz followed with a clean seventh and kept Cleveland off the board again in the eighth, aided by a diving stop from Gold Glove Finalist Taylor Walls on Steven Kwan.
The score stayed 3-2 long enough for Tampa Bay to get one more chance.
Richie Palacios doubled with one out in the eighth, and Jorge Mateo entered to run. Walls moved him to third with a groundout, bringing Díaz to the plate with the tying run 90 feet away.
Cleveland went to Cade Smith, and he struck Díaz out to get six outs away from victory.
Smith returned in the ninth and made sure there would be no more. Aranda flew out, Caminero struck out swinging and Mesa lifted a foul fly to left for the final out.
Simpson’s triple gave Tampa Bay the lead until Halpin took it back in a game where the Rays left some meat on the bone and found themselves down 2-1 in the series.
It’s hard to feel like upcoming Game 4 isn’t a must-win for the Rays to even the series and earn a chance to advance to the World Series.
