The Cleveland Guardians went five innings without scoring, then put a run on the board in each of the last four and beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-3 on Monday night at Tropicana Field, taking Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. Cleveland leads the best-of-seven series 1-0. Game 2 is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET in St. Petersburg, where 35,361 watched the opener.
Tampa Bay got out in front first
The Rays scored twice in the bottom of the first on run-scoring singles by Junior Caminero and Jonny DeLuca, and that was the whole of their offense until the eighth. Starter Drew Rasmussen then kept Cleveland off the board into the sixth, finishing with six innings, eight hits, two earned runs and seven strikeouts.
Caminero stayed in the game after a collision with DeLuca in left field and was cleared, according to MLB.com.
Two swings erased the lead
Chase DeLauter's 381-foot home run in the sixth cut it to 2-1. An inning later, catcher Patrick Bailey drove one 436 feet to center — the longest home run of his major-league career, MLB.com reported — and the game was tied at 2-2.
Cleveland finished with 14 hits to Tampa Bay's seven, and neither team committed an error. DeLauter went 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and three runs scored; José Ramírez also had three hits.
The bullpen held, then the ninth broke it open
Foster Griffin worked the first four innings and gave up two earned runs on five hits. Daniel Espino struck out three in his inning, Joey Cantillo walked two without allowing a run, and Hunter Gaddis took the win. Erik Sabrowski gave up a solo home run to Cedric Mullins in the eighth, and Cade Smith closed out a perfect ninth.
Nathaniel Lowe's two-run single in the eighth scored Ramírez and DeLauter and put Cleveland ahead 4-2. In the ninth, with two outs, Ramírez singled home Angel Martínez after Cleveland successfully challenged an out call at first base, and Jo Adell doubled two more runners in for the 7-3 final.
"We got punched early," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said, crediting his pitchers for keeping the game within reach.
Where the series stands
The win was Cleveland's fourth in a row. In the division series the Guardians came back from an 0-2 deficit against the Chicago White Sox, becoming the 11th team to do that in a best-of-five postseason series, according to MLB.com. Their championship drought of 77 seasons is the longest in Major League Baseball.
Tampa Bay won 98 games in the regular season and swept the New York Yankees in the division series. Monday was the Rays' first loss since September 27.
One number worth holding lightly: teams that win Game 1 of a best-of-seven series have gone on to win it 127 times out of 197, or 64%, MLB.com reported. That is a tendency across decades, not a forecast for this series — and the Guardians themselves spent this postseason on the other side of it.
"It's been a while since we lost, so I think that's a good thing, and I know the guys will come back and respond tomorrow," Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Reporting from MLB.com, CBS Sports and Bleacher Report.
