{"id":933619,"date":"2026-10-19T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933619\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T10:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:04:09","slug":"rays-on-verge-of-world-series-return-after-rasmussen-dazzles-in-win-over-guardians-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/933619\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays on verge of World Series return after Rasmussen dazzles in win over Guardians | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay\u2019s Jonny DeLuca figured it was going to be a quiet day for the outfielders with Drew Rasmussen on the mound for Game 5 of the AL Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the way Rasmussen quieted the Guardians\u2019 offense on Sunday, that made for a perfect evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets kind of boring out there because it\u2019s incredible the stuff he has,\u201d DeLuca said. \u201cBut you like that because he\u2019s your teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rasmussen allowed one run over seven innings for his second postseason win in a 3-1 victory that gave the Rays a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out six.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he limited anything was really, really impressive,\u201d Rays manager Kevin Cash said. \u201cHe got in rhythm with the fastball. A lot of power to everything. Then the depth on the changeup throughout the outing was a big pitch for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay have won the last two games and will try to capture their third AL pennant and first since 2020 on Monday at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, Florida.<\/p>\n

Since the ALCS expanded to a best-of-seven format in 1985, road teams winning Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead have won the series four out of five times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity. All of us are thinking of it. But it all ends tomorrow. We\u2019re going to win tomorrow,\u201d said designated hitter Yandy D\u00edaz, who had three hits.<\/p>\n

Game 7, if needed, would be Tuesday. The World Series starts Friday at NL champions Milwaukee.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rasmussen had given up two runs over six innings in the opener. After Chase DeLauter\u2019s two-out single in the first, the 31-year-old right-hander retired nine straight batters and allowed only one other baserunner through the sixth.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three postseason starts, striking out 23 and walking three.<\/p>\n

He used his changeup only 12 times in the opener but threw it 27 times on Sunday, including 21 for strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to attack with the changeup a lot more tonight,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ability to drive the cutter to the top I thought was also another strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleveland finally threatened in the seventh when Steven Kwan and Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez singled to put runners at the corners, and DeLauter grounded an RBI single between first and second.<\/p>\n

Cam Booser and Tyler Wells worked the eighth, with Wells striking out Ram\u00edrez to strand a runner.<\/p>\n

Bryan Baker came in for the ninth and converted his 35th straight save chance, his fifth of this postseason. Jo Adell was on second base when Travis Bazzana hit a game-ending groundout.<\/p>\n

Rays pitcher Bryan Baker celebrates after recording the final out of Sunday\u2019s 3-1 win over the Guardians in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series in Cleveland. Photograph: Jason Miller\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay scored single runs in each of the first three innings, the first two off Parker Messick and the third against Tim Herrin.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay\u2019s leadoff hitter reached base in the first four innings \u2013 scoring in the first three \u2013 and six times overall. Rays leadoff batters have reached in 10 of 14 innings dating to Saturday.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz scored on a bases-loaded walk by Messick to DeLuca in the first inning. D\u00edaz led off with a line-drive double over center fielder Petey Halpin that bounced on the warning track and off the wall.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Aranda\u2019s single drove in Ben Williamson for a 2-0 lead in the second, and Liam Hicks looped a curveball from Herrin to center to score Chandler Simpson in the third.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we took advantage of getting ourselves in some favorable counts and getting some big hits,\u201d Cash said. \u201cWe probably left some opportunities out there, and then they go to the bullpen, and it\u2019s really challenging to piece together big innings when they\u2019re mixing and matching from the third or fourth inning, whatever it was, on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwan had two of Cleveland\u2019s five hits and the four-time Gold Glove winner made two fine defensive plays: he threw out Taylor Walls trying to score from second base on Aranda\u2019s fourth-inning single to left and made a leaping catch at the center-field wall on Victor Mesa Jr\u2019s eighth-inning drive, saving a run.<\/p>\n

Messick had the shortest outing of his major league career and didn\u2019t make it past the third inning for the second time in four postseason starts. The 25-year-old left-hander went two innings and allowed two runs, five hits and three walks, throwing just 34 of 57 pitches for strikes.<\/p>\n

Cleveland have not won an ALCS when trailing 3-2, while the Rays are 58-27 at home this year, including the postseason.<\/p>\n

The Guardians are seeking their first World Series title since 1948.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019ve got our work cut out for us. It\u2019s a really good team and a really good team when they play at home, especially,\u201d manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cWe know this is going to be tough but if there\u2019s a group I\u2019m betting on to get this done, it\u2019s our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay\u2019s Jonny DeLuca figured it was going to be a quiet day for the outfielders with Drew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-933619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}