Rays Rally Past Guardians in Game 6, Clinch Third Pennant in Franchise History

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night, closing out a six-game series and sending the Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series for the third time in the franchise's 29 seasons. They will face the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, in a matchup of two franchises still chasing their first title. Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.

Yandy Díaz and Junior Caminero each hit a two-run home run, and Freddy Peralta worked around trouble for five-and-a-third innings to earn the win in front of a sellout crowd of 40,230 at Tropicana Field. The victory ended the Cleveland Guardians' season and stretched the franchise's championship drought to 78 years, dating to 1948.

A series that swung late

According to the official box score, Tampa Bay scored twice in the second inning on Richie Palacios' two-run double off opener Shawn Armstrong, added a run in the third on Jonny DeLuca's sacrifice fly and carried a 3-0 lead until Nathaniel Lowe's RBI single pulled Cleveland within two in the sixth. Caminero, a two-time All-Star who hit 42 home runs in the regular season but had gone 33 postseason at-bats without one, broke the game open with a seventh-inning shot off All-Star closer Cade Smith, making him the first hitter all year to go deep on one of Smith's splitters. Cleveland answered with two runs in the eighth off relievers Tyler Wells and Ian Seymour, loading the bases with two outs before Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to end the threat. Díaz put the game away in the bottom of the eighth with a 416-foot, two-run drive off Hunter Gaddis.

Peralta, who allowed one run on five hits, was named Most Valuable Player of the series. It was his third outing of the six games: he threw six scoreless innings to win Game 2, got two critical outs in relief in Game 4, and closed it out with the win in Game 6. The right-hander was acquired by Tampa Bay from the New York Mets before the trade deadline in early August.

• Final score: Rays 7, Guardians 3 (Rays win series 4-2)
• Home runs: Junior Caminero (2-run, 7th inning, off Cade Smith), Yandy Díaz (2-run, 8th inning, off Hunter Gaddis)
• Winning pitcher: Freddy Peralta (2-0 in the ALCS, named series MVP)
• Attendance: 40,230 at Tropicana Field

From a gutted roof to the World Series

The pennant comes two years after Hurricane Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field and caused extensive damage throughout the ballpark, forcing the Rays to play their entire 2025 home schedule across the bay at the New York Yankees' spring training complex in Tampa. The team returned to a rebuilt Tropicana Field this season under new ownership, which also secured a deal for a new stadium near the NFL's Buccaneers that is expected to open in 2029. Back in St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay went 55-26 at home, a win total matched only by Milwaukee among all major-league clubs, and rolled to a 96-61 record that clinched the franchise's fifth American League East title and the league's No. 1 seed.

Monday's clincher fell on the 18th anniversary of the Rays' first AL pennant in 2008. This postseason, Tampa Bay swept the Yankees in the Division Series, then fell behind Cleveland 1-0 and 2-1 in the Championship Series before winning three straight to close it out. Cleveland had reached the ALCS by rallying from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Chicago White Sox in the Division Series, and had pushed this series to a sixth game after taking two of the first three.

The series itself swung on starting pitching as much as power. Drew Rasmussen opened at home in Game 1 before Cleveland took that game 7-3; Peralta's six scoreless innings evened it in Game 2; the Guardians regained the edge in Game 3 at Progressive Field; and the Rays won the final three games by a combined score of 17-7, getting enough length from their rotation and bullpen to keep Cleveland's lineup, anchored by José Ramírez, from putting together the big innings that had carried the Guardians through their own Division Series comeback.

Reaction from both clubhouses

Rays manager Kevin Cash told his team "We got one more bite!" as the clubhouse celebration began. The comment followed a public guarantee from Díaz, who told reporters through an interpreter on Sunday that Tampa Bay would win Game 6.

"I couldn't be more proud of our group. It just hurts. It stings. Really felt like we had a team to go and just weren't able to get there."

That was Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt, speaking after his team's season ended one series short of the World Series. Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander credited Díaz's game-sealing homer: "Yandy had a claim to back and he did his part. That was unbelievable." Cash added, "We know when Yandy goes, our offense seems to really take off." Peralta, reflecting on his trade-deadline move from the Mets, said he was "very happy to be here, to be part of this great group and this great organization," adding, "This is not only mine. We all earned this. This is for the boys." Caminero, who pointed into the stands at former Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena while rounding the bases on his homer, later grabbed a field microphone to address the crowd directly: "This is for you! Let's go! I can't hear you!"

What comes next

Tampa Bay's trip to the World Series is its first since 2020, when the Rays lost in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the pandemic-shortened season. This time the opponent is Milwaukee, which has not reached the World Series since 1982 and is seeking its first championship in franchise history; the Rays, for their part, have never won one either, a circumstance the wire account of Monday's game noted has not occurred since the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in 1980. The full 2026 postseason bracket now shows Rays-Brewers as the only series remaining. Game 1 is scheduled for Friday night at Milwaukee's American Family Field, with the series shifting to Tropicana Field for Games 3, 4 and, if necessary, 5. For the Guardians, the offseason begins immediately, with an organization now facing questions about its pitching staff and lineup depth after falling one round short of the World Series yet again. For the Milwaukee Brewers, who matched Tampa Bay's 55 home wins this season, the matchup pits the National League champions against an American League pennant winner built, in large part, around in-season additions like Peralta.

For St. Petersburg, the pennant carries a civic dimension beyond the standings. Two years after images of Tropicana Field's torn-open roof circulated nationally in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, the ballpark that many wondered would ever host a postseason game again was instead the site of a pennant celebration, with yellow-and-blue rally towels and cowbells filling a sold-out building. The Rays' new ownership group, which took over the franchise this year alongside a stadium deal for a new ballpark near the Buccaneers' home set to open in 2029, now gets to sell a World Series home game as its first marquee event in the rebuilt Trop.