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<\/p>\nST. PETERSBURG, Fla \u2014 The stage is set for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series as the Tampa Bay Rays prepare to host the Cleveland Guardians at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n
It marks the Rays\u2019 third trip to the ALCS in franchise history. Their previous two appearances ended with Tampa Bay winning the American League pennant.<\/p>\n
For Rays fans, excitement has been building since Tampa Bay completed a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees earlier this week.<\/p>\n
At the time, some fans were hoping the Chicago White Sox would be next.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the White Sox. I got Chicago friends. I wanna talk trash to them,\u201d said Matt Dance.<\/p>\n
Cleveland had other plans.<\/p>\n
The Guardians came back from a 2-0 series deficit to win three straight games and advance to the ALCS.<\/p>\n
Even with the change in opponent, Rays fans remain confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it is the Guardians, I think the Rays are gonna win anyway at the end of the day,\u201d said Kamron Gelwick.<\/p>\n
The series brings together two franchises looking to end championship droughts. Tampa Bay is still searching for its first World Series title, while Cleveland hasn\u2019t won one since 1948.<\/p>\n
Fans believe this Rays team has a chance to make a special run.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they have a way better shot for sure this year, and [they\u2019re] fun to watch,\u201d said Cole Schumaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s gonna be a good series for sure,\u201d Schumaker added.<\/p>\n
For fans heading to Tropicana Field, the Rays are encouraging everyone to plan ahead. Parking at the stadium must be prepaid and purchased online. Fans can also consider rideshare or the SunRunner to avoid getting caught looking for parking as first pitch approaches.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
‘My heart breaks’: Woman describes helping injured students after deadly school bus crash in Polk County<\/p>\n
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
Woman describes helping injured students after deadly school bus crash in Polk County<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla \u2014 The stage is set for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[166544,163001,596,107032,165088,167306,167307,135,5910,3670,137,136,208],"class_list":["post-425057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-alcs","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-pinellas-county","tag-pinellas-news","tag-playoff-baseball","tag-rays-alcs","tag-rays-guardians","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425057","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=425057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}