Well Cleveland, you gave it your all. The 85-win AL Central champions took two games off of the Rays in the ALCS, which is two more than the Yankees can say they got in the ALDS, but their run ended on Monday night as the top seed in the American League closed things out to set up a match against the top seed in the National League.
American League Championship Series Game 6
Tampa Bay Rays 7, Cleveland Guardians 3
(Rays win series 4-2)
Tampa could smell blood in the water with the Guardians forced to go with a bullpen game this late in the series,
and after needing their bullpen to give them an overwhelming majority of the outs in Game 5 Cleveland’s relievers just ran out of gas. Shawn Armstrong was tasked with being the opener and got through the first inning unharmed, but Stephen Vogt knew he needed to stretch every arm as long as he could and thus let Armstrong go out to start the second inning. Junior Caminero greeted him with a single right up the middle and ended his night, Tim Herrin entering in his stead. Herrin got a forceout, but that put the speedy Chandler Simpson on base who promptly stole second, and Victor Mesa Jr. walked to put runners on for Richie Palacios who doubled them both home for an early 2-0 lead.
Herrin’s night was done after that, and Matt Festa allowed the bases to get loaded on a walk and hit by pitch but managed to evade further trouble in the inning by getting Jonathan Aranda to fly out. Joey Cantillo took over for the start of the third and wouldn’t fare as well though, loading the bases with no outs on a single, walk, and bunt single. Mesa then hit into a forceout at the plate, but Jonny DeLuca lifted a sac fly to bring in the third run of the game. Palacios was back up, but he couldn’t add on only grounding out to first to end the inning. It could’ve been a lot worse for Cleveland, but the game was already beginning to slip away with how many runs they were allowing.
On the other side, Freddy Peralta got the ball for Tampa Bay and he continued to put up zeroes like he has all postseason, though Cleveland did threaten. In the third inning Peralta had to strand a pair of runners, and in the fourth Jo Adell led off with a double followed by a walk to put runners on with nobody out. Travis Bazzana went after the first pitch he saw and lined out, and Patrick Bailey hit into a double play to end the threat with nothing to show for it. The fifth was uneventful for both sides, but Chase DeLauter led off the sixth with a double and came around to score on a Nathaniel Lowe single that ended Peralta’s night. Cam Booser entered and quickly put out the fire, but the Guardians were at least showing signs of life.
Unfortunately for them, it came too late. Caminero put his stamp on this game with a two-run home run in the seventh inning, and after Cleveland got those runs back in the top of the eighth via a bases-loaded walk and hit by pitch Yandy Díaz followed up with a two-run blast of his own. Now up 7-3, Bryan Baker was called on to close out the ALCS and sat the Guardians down in order to secure a trip to the World Series. For his efforts in winning Games 2 and 6 (as well as appearing in relief in Game 4), Peralta took home ALCS MVP honors, continuing one of the biggest turnarounds in a season after escaping the disaster that was the Mets. Now he’ll have to take on his former team if he wants to win a ring.
Tampa Bay will now get a few days off before flying out to Milwaukee to meet the Brewers for Game 1 of the World Series on Friday. These two teams were the best in their respective leagues, and they’ll both be aiming for their first championship in franchise history. For Tampa, this is their third shot at it after losing to the Phillies in 2008 and the Dodgers in 2020, while for Milwaukee their only trip to the Fall Classic came in 1982 when they were an American League team, losing in seven games to the Cardinals. The city has seen a World Series championship, but it came when the Braves were located there before they moved out to Atlanta.
