{"id":421951,"date":"2026-10-08T05:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421951\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T05:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T05:20:14","slug":"rays-fans-celebrate-as-tampa-bay-sweeps-yankees-advances-to-alcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421951\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays fans celebrate as Tampa Bay sweeps Yankees, advances to ALCS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Rays fans had plenty to cheer about Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>As the Tampa Bay Rays battled the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, hundreds of fans gathered at Tropicana Field for an official watch party.<\/p>\n<p>Rays fans celebrate as Tampa Bay sweeps Yankees, advances to ALCS<\/p>\n<p>Cowbells rang through the Trop. Fans packed the Hall of Fame Bar &amp; Grill, their eyes glued to TV screens, as the Rays held on for a 4-3 victory in New York.<\/p>\n<p>The win completed a three-game sweep of the Yankees and sent Tampa Bay to the American League Championship Series.<\/p>\n<p>For Rays fans, the celebration was about more than one playoff win. Many said they believe this team has something special.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited. I\u2019ve been through a lot of Rays history, so I have a special feeling about this year,\u201d Rays fan J. Scott Butherus from Ruskin said.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791436811_541_.png\" alt=\"Rays Watch Party in St. Pete as Tampa Bay Sweeps New York Yankees\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"710\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WFTS<\/p>\n<p>Former Rays outfielder Brett Phillips, who hosted the watch party, said the team\u2019s chemistry reminds him of some of the best teams he played with in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one of the best teams \u2014 close group of guys \u2014 that they\u2019ve ever gotten to work with. Just picking each other up. The brotherhood,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791436812_376_.png\" alt=\"Rays Watch Party in St. Pete as Tampa Bay Sweeps New York Yankees\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"716\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WFTS<\/p>\n<p>Rays fan Roy Nguyen said fans are ready for the team to take the next step.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want this ring so bad,\u201d Nguyen said. \u201cI\u2019m really speechless, and 3-0 against our rival \u2014 it just feels so good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Rays will face either the Cleveland Guardians or Chicago White Sox in the ALCS.<\/p>\n<p>Game 1 is scheduled for Monday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791436814_149_CHAD.MILLS.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My heart breaks&#8217;: Woman describes helping injured students after deadly school bus crash in Polk County<\/p>\n<p>A woman on her way to work Monday morning found herself helping injured Winter Haven High School students after a school bus crash that killed two people.<\/p>\n<p>Woman describes helping injured students after deadly school bus crash in Polk County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Rays fans had plenty to cheer about Wednesday night. As the Tampa Bay Rays&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[166544,164810,3816,166545,166546,3821,596,107032,99811,202,204,203,199,201,200,166547],"class_list":["post-421951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-alcs","tag-alds","tag-baseball","tag-championship-series","tag-division-series","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pinellas-news","tag-rays-up","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-st-petersburg-watch-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}