When the Guardians went up two games to one in this American League Championship Series, their goal was pretty simple. Even a split of their final two games in Cleveland would keep them in control, headed back to Tampa Bay with two shots to end the ALCS and return to the World Series for the first time since 2016.
Instead, the Rays did what the Rays do. They made things hard on their opponent, they pitched the lights out, and they won two games in a row, including a smothering performance in Game
5 last night. Indeed, it will be the Rays that head back to Florida with two chances to win the pennant.
American League Championship Series Game 5
Tampa Bay Rays 3, Cleveland Guardians 1
(Rays lead series 3-2)
The score line reads this as a close ballgame, and nominally, it was, with the Rays never able to put away the Guardians, and Cleveland ultimately bringing the tying run to the plate in each of the final two innings. As it was played, though, it never really felt close. Tampa Bay’s offense kept traffic on the base paths all night, while Cleveland could nary string a rally together, leading to a 3-1 Rays win that wasn’t as tight as the score indicated.
In the early innings, it felt as though Tampa really would run away with it. They were all over Guardians lefty Parker Messick, who had a fantastic 2026 season but has looked as though he might be buckling under a career-high workload. Messick struggled with his control, and after the Rays loaded the bases in the first on a Yandy Díaz double, a walk to Ryan Vilade, and a Chandler Simpson single, Messick forced in the game’s first run by walking Jonny DeLuca.
Messick avoided further damage by stranding the bases loaded with a Liam Hicks groundout, but he went right back in the spin cycle the next inning. Singles from Ben Williamson, Díaz, and Jonathan Aranda doubled Tampa Bay’s lead to 2-0, and Messick needed key strikeouts of Vilade and Junior Caminero just to hold the line there.
Though the Rays led by just two after two, the way things were playing out left manager Stephen Vogt in an unenviable position. His top young lefty was getting slowcooked by the Rays’ offense, having thrown 57 pitches to get six outs, but Vogt had come into the game wanting much more from Messick, with this series possibly set to have four games played on consecutive nights, and the Guardians likely to deploy a bullpen game in Game 6 tonight. It spoke to the gravity of the situation that even with all that, Vogt pulled Messick, and tabbed Tim Herrin to start the third.
Herrin fared no better. Simpson doubled to lead off and stole third, before coming home on Hicks’ RBI single:
Herrin induced a double play from Williamson to end the inning there, the first of two Cleveland double plays that were key in keeping the Rays from blowing things open.
Tampa had grinded out eight hits and two walks in the first two innings, and Cleveland had to feel fortunate to only be down three, but their task remained tall, in no small part thanks to a man that’s authoring quite the postseason legend this October. Drew Rasmussen started for Tampa and was his usual excellent self. He shut out the Guardians through the first five innings, and didn’t allow a runner as far as second base until the sixth. There, Steven Kwan and José Ramírez stacked back-to-back singles, and Chase DeLauter drove home Kwan with an RBI groundout to finally damage Rasmussen.
But that was the only trouble Rasmussen found himself in. Nathaniel Lowe led off the seventh with a single, but Rasmussen got Travis Bazanna to foul out before Patrick Bailey grounded into a double play to end the inning. That would be it for Rasmussen, who exited having allowed one run on four hits over seven, striking out six.
Kevin Cash went with Cam Booser in the eighth, who retired the first two batters before allowing a single to Kwan. On came Tyler Wells to face Ramírez as the tying run, blowing a high cut-fastball past Ramírez in a 2-2 count to end the inning:
That left the ninth for Rays closer Bryan Baker, who briefly looked like he might inject a bit of drama into the proceedings by walking DeLauter to open the frame. But on the first pitch he saw from Baker, Jo Adell grounded a tailor-made double play ball to Taylor Walls, who got the out at short but saw Richie Palacios spike the throw to first to give Adell a reprieve. No matter, Baker got Lowe to foul out and Bazzana to ground out to cinch a 14-pitch save.
The Rays never did blow this one open, which is notable because of what that feat cost Cleveland: Vogt ended up going deep into his bullpen. All of Vogt’s high-leverage arms, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, and Erik Sabrowski, ended up getting more than three outs last night, while Herrin and Shawn Armstrong also contributed to the effort. None of them threw more than 22 pitches (Smith), but they all ended up taxing themselves in a loss before having to get on a plane to go to Tampa with the prospect of two more bullpen-heavy games looming. Not only do the Guardians need to win two on the road, but their bullpen will be behind the eight-ball as they try to do so.
This series is certainly not over; we need only go back to Game 3 to find an instance of Cleveland doing enough to win without needing to ask much from their pitching staff. But the Guardians have exhausted their margin of error. They now need to be close to perfect on back-to-back nights, while the Rays need just one more strong effort to clinch the pennant. They’ll have their first shot at it tonight at 8 p.m. EST when they send Freddy Peralta to the mound.
