The Guards take game 3 carried by dominant pitching, and a couple clutch hits.
The Big Rig looked as dominant today as he has all postseason. He was lights out retiring the first 9 hitters of the game striking out 5. With the big rig rolling the Guards would strike first. Jo Adell would draw a walk after overturning a called strike three upon review, and immediately come around to score on an absolute rocket 111.4 MPH RBI double by Nathaniel Lowe on the first pitch of his AB.
The Rays would have an answer. Yandy Diaz would lead off the 4th with a double. The Big Rig would then strike out Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, but after pitching around Victor Mesa Jr giving up a 2 out walk Chandler Simpson would be the hero for the Rays as he laced a 102 mph double down the right field line on a sweeper from The Big Rig in on his hands. It’s really hard to say he threw a mistake on that pitch because it was well inside to Simpson, but the Rays would take a 2-1 lead.
The Guards would be retired by Griffin Jax quietly in the 4th as it appeared he was starting to settle in after giving up the double to Lowe in the 2nd. The Big Rig would answer with a quick easy inning of his own in the top half of the 5th, and then in the bottom of the inning it would be the Guards turn to strike bat. Patrick Bailey would reach on an infield single high chopper over the pitchers mound (very similar to the one at The Trop in game 2), and who else would it be but Petey Halpin in the box who pimped a 105 mph line drive shot over the fence in right center field that put the Guardians back on top 3-2.
After that it was a battle of the bullpens. Aided by some solid defense Tyler Wells, and Steven Matz would combine to throw 4 shutout innings for the Rays giving up just 1 hit and no walks, but Daniel Espino:
Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis, and Cade Smith would combine to throw 4 innings of 1 hit shut out baseball themselves walking non one. Cade Smith came on in the top of the 8th with 2 outs and a runner on 3rd to face Yandy Diaz. The battle between the two was a hard fought one, but Cade Smith (after 10 pitches and 6 foul balls) would emerge victorious striking out Diaz on a 98 mph heater up in the zone.
Cade would need only 8 pitches to get through the 9th. Aranda hit a lazy fly ball to center, Caminero would strike out, and Victor Mesa Jr. would foul out right up against the wall in foul territory on a nice catch by Steven Kwan with the wind pushing the ball toward the seats, and the crowd loved it!
The Guards will look to take a 3-1 lead (as of right now) Friday night at 6:00pm. At the time of writing neither team has listed a probable starter. The forecast for Friday night looks pretty bad by all accounts so it’s possible there won’t be a game at all Friday and the next two games will be Saturday and Sunday. We will all just have to stay tuned to find out.
