![\"ALCS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/55styi5azp5bqkxf.jpg\")
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Tampa Bay Rays fans held onto hope Thursday as they came out to Tropicana Field for a playoff watch party.<\/p>\n
Fans gather at the Trop <\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
The Rays took on the Cleveland Guardians in Game 3 of the ALCS. The game was moved up to 1 p.m. due to weather concerns. A lot of fans went into Game 3 on Thursday feeling optimistic, despite the Rays playing in enemy territory.<\/p>\n
“I was here back when we made it in 2020-23,” Aiden Zengel\u00a0said. “That was a great stretch of time, but hopefully this is the year. I have faith. I’ve had faith since the beginning. People doubted us, but I got faith this year.”<\/p>\n
The Trop also allowed people with tickets to the watch party to throw the ball around out on the field.<\/p>\n
“This is the first time we’ve been on the field,” Meghan Partridge said. “I remember when I was a kid running the bases, so I was so excited that this was the opportunity for us at the watch party. We haven’t been able to go to a game yet, so I’m very excited.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tropicana-watch-party-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The energy picked up once the Rays got on the board, but the afternoon ended in disappointment for the crowd.<\/p>\n
What we don’t know:<\/p>\n
It’s not yet clear if the game time for Game 4 on Friday will change.<\/p>\n
Optimism for the series <\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
A lot of fans knew this was going to be a difficult series, but they’re hopeful that the Rays can win it.<\/p>\n
“I was thinking it was going to be tough,” one fan said. “Cleveland’s always had our number. It’s better than Texas or some of the other ones we faced.”<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
Tropicana Field will host another watch party on Friday for Game 4, which is currently set for 6 p.m. The doors are expected to open at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Fans can secure tickets and find parking information on the Rays’ website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Source: The information in this story was gathered during interviews with fans attending the watch party at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>St. Petersburg<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Tampa Bay Rays fans held onto hope Thursday as they came out to Tropicana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,3817,115,1157,6164,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-428931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-rays-baseball","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428931","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=428931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}