Rays even ALCS at a game apiece with 3-1 win over Guardians

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night, evening the best-of-seven series at one win apiece before it moves to Cleveland. Right-hander Freddy Peralta threw six scoreless innings and a fourth-inning fielding error by third baseman José Ramírez opened the door for an unearned, three-run rally that held up as the winning margin.

A crowd of 32,125 watched at Tropicana Field as the Rays, the American League's top seed after a 98-64 regular season, answered Cleveland's Game 1 victory and leveled the series ahead of a shift to Progressive Field. The result was confirmed by CBS Sports' box score, which listed all three Tampa Bay runs as unearned against Cleveland starter Parker Messick.

The numbers

Peralta allowed four hits and two walks while striking out six over six innings, throwing 99 pitches and reaching 97 mph on his fastball more often than in any other outing this year, according to MLB.com's recap. He improved to 1-0 in the series. Messick's line showed five innings, six hits, three runs (all unearned), two walks and three strikeouts; he took the loss and fell to 0-2 this postseason. Relievers Kevin Kelly and Ian Seymour bridged to closer Bryan Baker, who worked a perfect ninth for his fourth save of the playoffs.

Cleveland finished with six hits to Tampa Bay's seven and stranded nine runners compared with the Rays' five. The Guardians went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Chase DeLauter reached base three times, going 1-for-2 with two walks and driving in Cleveland's only run; he has reached base in every postseason game the Guardians have played except Game 1 of the Division Series, according to an analysis on Guardians On SI. Shortstop Brayan Rocchio went 0-for-4 and has just two hits this entire postseason, both from a single game in the Division Series. Ramírez, who had been Cleveland's standout hitter through the division series and Game 1, went 1-for-4 without an RBI.

How the game turned

The decisive sequence unfolded in the fourth inning against Messick. Junior Caminero drew a leadoff walk, and Victor Mesa Jr. followed with a grounder to second baseman Travis Bazzana that appeared to turn into a double play before a replay review overturned the call and ruled Mesa safe at first. Jonny DeLuca struck out, but Chandler Simpson, starting for the first time since Game 2 of the Division Series, chopped a ball in front of the plate that bounced high enough to elude a tag at first. Mesa, alert to an uncovered third base, advanced from second to third on the play.

With runners on the corners, Ben Williamson hit a two-out grounder toward Ramírez. The ball caught the lip of the infield turf, deflected off the top of Ramírez's glove and rolled between his legs into left field, allowing Mesa to score the game's first run. Williamson and Simpson advanced, and catcher Liam Hicks, batting eighth against the left-handed Messick, lined a first-pitch slider to center field to drive in both runners and make it 3-0. Cleveland's response came in the seventh, when DeLauter doubled off reliever Ian Seymour to score pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey and cut the deficit to 3-1, but the Guardians did not threaten again.

Context: two teams built the same way

The Rays reached the ALCS after eliminating the New York Yankees in the Division Series, while the Guardians advanced by coming back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox in five games. Both clubs built their rosters around pitching depth, defense and situational hitting rather than high-priced free agents, a similarity several players and both managers pointed to after Tuesday's game. The series opened with Cleveland taking Game 1 behind its own small-ball approach, and Tuesday's result suggested that whichever team executes the fundamentals — and avoids the kind of defensive miscue that befell Ramírez — may decide the pennant.

Ramírez entered the series as one of its central figures, having driven in the decisive runs in Game 5 of the Division Series against the White Sox and contributing in Cleveland's Game 1 win. His fourth-inning error, while ruled a product of an unusual bounce rather than a routine misplay, shifted the game's momentum at a moment when Cleveland had been playing even with Tampa Bay's ace. CBS Sports' live coverage of the game noted the Tropicana Field turf, with its artificially fast and uneven surface, has produced unpredictable hops all postseason and contributed directly to the bounce that beat Ramírez.

Reaction

Rays manager Kevin Cash credited his team's ability to pounce on the opening. "José Ramírez is as good as any third baseman there is in the game, and we were fortunate to maybe catch a break there," Cash said, according to MLB.com. "But once you catch the break, it's kind of what you do with it." He added of Hicks's go-ahead single: "Liam picked us up in a big way."

"They're a very similar team to us, so I think we knew going into it this whole series is going to be a dogfight," Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. "Any way we could scratch and claw and get runs across, we're going to take."

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt pointed to the broken-up double play that preceded the error as the inning's turning point. "We didn't get quite a good feed or quick turn," Vogt said. "Any time your rhythm is broken up on a double-play ball like that, it's going to be tough to really turn it." Catcher Liam Hicks said the rally reflected how Tampa Bay has played all season: "Any time the defense is on their heels, we're able to take advantage."

What happens next

The series shifts to Progressive Field for Game 3 on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET, with the broadcast on TBS. Cleveland will have home-field advantage for as many as three straight games, a cushion the Guardians could not use in the regular season's head-to-head series with Tampa Bay. Vogt could also consider lineup changes, including a possible swap of the struggling Rocchio for rookie infielder Ángel Genao. The winner of the ALCS will advance to face the winner of the National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. Starting pitchers for Game 3 had not been announced as of Tuesday night.