ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The ALCS heads to Cleveland tied at one game apiece after the Rays beat the Guardians 3-1 Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. Freddy Peralta threw six scoreless innings, and Tampa Bay turned a scramble of a fourth inning into all the runs it needed. Parker Messick took the loss after five innings with zero earned runs. That tells you plenty about how this one went.
For Dodgers fans keeping an eye on the other side of the bracket, both clubs have shown the pitching to make runs hard to come by. Tuesday belonged to Peralta, backed by a Rays team that made Cleveland pay for one costly slip.
Three Runs by a Thousand Paper Cuts
Messick had worked through three scoreless innings when Junior Caminero opened the fourth with a walk. Victor Mesa Jr. followed with a grounder that nearly became a double play. Cleveland got the force at second, but a Rays challenge overturned the call at first, keeping Mesa aboard.
That mattered a great deal.
Messick struck out Jonny DeLuca for the second out, bringing him within one good pitch of another clean inning. Chandler Simpson then beat out a grounder to shortstop for an infield single, with Mesa racing to third.
Ben Williamson’s grounder to third gave Cleveland another chance to end it. Instead, José Ramírez misplayed a very catchable ball, an uncharacteristic mistake that brought Mesa home. Simpson reached third, Williamson wound up at second, and Tampa Bay had a lead.
Liam Hicks supplied the inning’s cleanest swing, lining a two-run single to center. Suddenly, the Rays led 3-0.
Messick got Taylor Walls on strikes to finish the inning, but the damage was done. A close play at first, an infield hit and an error had kept the inning alive long enough for Hicks to cash in. Messick allowed six hits and two walks over five innings. Every run against him was unearned. He was a hard-luck loser who got cut down by paper cuts.
Peralta Keeps Cleveland in Check
Peralta earned his win with six innings of four-hit ball, striking out six and walking two. He threw 68 of his 99 pitches for strikes and worked past the few jams Cleveland built.
In the second, a wild pitch and a hit batter helped put two runners aboard. Peralta struck out Brayan Rocchio to end the threat. In the fifth, Ramírez singled and stole second before Chase DeLauter walked. Jo Adell lined out to center, leaving both runners stranded.
Cleveland finally scored in the seventh. Patrick Bailey walked against Kevin Kelly, and Steven Kwan singled. With two outs, Ian Seymour entered and gave up DeLauter’s RBI double, putting the tying runs in scoring position.
Seymour struck out Adell, then worked a scoreless eighth with help from sharp catches by Richie Palacios and Walls. Bryan Baker closed it with an eight-pitch ninth for his fourth save of the postseason.
The Guardians finished 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left nine men aboard. Tampa Bay’s pitching made that messy fourth inning stand up, and the series starts fresh in Cleveland.
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A lifelong baseball fan, Webb has been going to Dodger games since he moved to Los Angeles in 1987. His favorite memory was attending the insane Game 3 of the World Series in 2025 and hugging random Dodgers fans after Freddie’s walkoff homer. He has been writing for Dodgersbeat since 2020.
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