TALLAHASSEE, Fla.\u00a0\u2014 A pair of low-payroll teams with similar styles will face off in the AL Championship Series.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s small ball vs. \u201cGuards Ball\u201d when the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Guardians open their best-of-seven series Monday night at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n
Two-time All-Star right-hander Drew Rasmussen takes the mound for Tampa Bay after dominating the New York Yankees in the opener of the AL Division Series.<\/p>\n
Lefty Foster Griffin will start for Cleveland, which worked out late Sunday after beating the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 of its ALDS.<\/p>\n
The Rays won an AL-best 98 games in the regular season, swept New York in the ALDS and seek the third pennant in the franchise\u2019s 29-season history.<\/p>\n
Cleveland won 85 games, fell behind Chicago in the ALDS and became only the 11th team to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s really set in yet,\u201d Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cBut we\u2019re here. The guys are excited. We\u2019re prepared. We\u2019re ready to go. We\u2019re playing some really good baseball right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays-Yankees matchup was David vs. Goliath in terms of payroll because New York opened the season with MLB\u2019s third highest at $302.8 million and Tampa Bay ranked 26th at $90.5 million.<\/p>\n
But the Rays are facing a team now that spent even less. The Guardians were last in the majors at $75.5 million.<\/p>\n
Both teams emphasize contact at the plate, speed on the bases, strong fundamentals, solid pitching and doing whatever it takes to win.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay led the AL with a .258 batting average and had the fewest strikeouts in the majors. The Guardians only hit .239, didn\u2019t have a hitter with more than 18 homers and had the fifth-fewest strikeouts in the league.<\/p>\n
The two clubs bolstered their rosters at the trade deadline. Tampa Bay got starter Freddy Peralta, catcher Liam Hicks and reliever Tyler Wells.<\/p>\n
Cleveland acquired Griffin, outfielder Jo Adell, and first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think there\u2019s more similarities than not,\u201d Rays manager Kevin Cash said Sunday. \u201cI feel Cleveland does mirror us or we mirror them. And I say that with the utmost respect to them, the way they develop pitching, the way they think about the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starting matchup<\/p>\n
Rasmussen took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning of the ALDS opener, finishing with 10 strikeouts in a 1-0 victory. He was 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA and led the AL with a 0.91 WHIP. Rasmussen has been one of baseball\u2019s best pitchers since an internal brace procedure in July 2023 that forced him to miss more than a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could really care less where people would rank me,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cI\u2019m going to come in every single day, be as prepared as possible and I\u2019m going to go out there and compete to the best of my abilities and do my best to execute and give our team the best chance to win.<\/p>\n
Griffin was 3-3 with a 5.19 ERA in nine starts for Cleveland after the trade. The 31-year-old lefty was 12-3 went a 3.06 ERA with the Nationals after spending the previous three seasons with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan\u2019s Central League.<\/p>\n
Griffin had seven strikeouts and gave up one run in 2 2\/3 innings of relief in Game 3 against the White Sox.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got some slug for sure, and also just have some really good just baseball knowledge-type players: get a guy over less than two outs, knowing when to hit the sac fly, put the ball on the ground in certain situations,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cHave some speed, as well. More of a complete team instead of just a 1-through-9, trying to hit you for a home run or slug.\u201d<\/p>\n
Run producers<\/p>\n
Junior Caminero batted .276 with 42 homers and 101 RBIs and was 3 for 10 with one double and walked twice vs. the Yankees. Jonathan Aranda hit a career-best 22 homers in the regular season and was 4 for 12 in the ALDS with a homer in the opener.<\/p>\n
Yandy Diaz (.293, 22, 85) and Chandler Simpson (.306, 48 steals) are integral parts of the lineup.<\/p>\n
Chase DeLauter led the Guardians with a .287 average to go with 16 homers. Steven Kwan hit .282 and Angel Martinez led the team with 18 homers. Martinez wasn\u2019t in the starting lineup in Game 5 vs. Chicago after going 0 for 15 and striking out eight times in the first four games. Jose Ram\u00edrez batted .235 in the regular season but homered twice against the White Sox, including a two-run drive in the 2-0 win in Game 5.<\/p>\n
ALCS history<\/p>\n
The Rays won their previous appearances in seven games, against Boston in 2008 and the Houston in 2020. They lost the World Series both times, to Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Cleveland is 3-3, including a five-game series loss to the Yankees in 2024, and have not won the World Series since in 1948 \u2014 the longest drought in the major leagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla.\u00a0\u2014 A pair of low-payroll teams with similar styles will face off in the AL Championship Series.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,2205,115,29645,110,135,3815,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-425431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-news","tag-professional-baseball","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425431","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=425431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}