{"id":432702,"date":"2026-10-20T04:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/432702\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T04:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:32:13","slug":"clevelands-painful-world-series-drought-continues-at-hands-of-tampa-bay-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/432702\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland\u2019s painful World Series drought continues at hands of Tampa Bay Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 For yet another season, Cleveland baseball fans will have to wait.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s proud major league franchise still hasn\u2019t won a World Series since 1948.<\/p>\n

After the Guardians fell a little short once again with a 7-3 loss to Tampa Bay<\/a> in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night, it will be the Rays meeting the Milwaukee Brewers in the Fall Classic \u2014 the first once since 1980 between teams seeking their first World Series title.<\/p>\n

Seemingly in control of the best-of-seven ALCS after winning two of the first three games, Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez and the Guardians are left to lament three straight losses. Tampa Bay used clear superiority in its starting rotation, bullpen and late-series offense to eliminate Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Seeing the Guardians\u2019 best relievers repeatedly \u2013 including opener Shawn Armstrong in Game 4 on Saturday and again Monday in Game 6 \u2014 the Rays improved their swings as the series progressed.<\/p>\n

Cleveland\u2019s staff, which struck out 27 batters over the first three games, didn\u2019t get its first strikeout Monday until Daniel Espino fanned Victor Mesa Jr. in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

By then, Tampa Bay held a 3-0 lead, grinding out runs in trademark fashion. And, as they did over the prior two games, the Rays kept the Guardians at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n

Cleveland led the AL with 41 comeback victories this season, but fatigue clearly caught up with the Guardians as Tampa Bay closed out the series. The Guardians didn\u2019t hold a lead over the final 25 innings.<\/p>\n

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt was left wondering whether ace Gavin Williams, who struck out nine over five innings in his Game 3 victory, would\u2019ve been the better option Monday on three days\u2019 rest.<\/p>\n

Instead, Vogt used eight relievers Monday, and Tampa Bay showed no hospitality.<\/p>\n

The Rays even got to Cleveland\u2019s best reliever, All-Star closer Cade Smith, when the right-hander faced Junior Caminero in the seventh. Caminero pulled Smith\u2019s first-pitch splitter off the left-field foul pole for a two-run homer that gave the Rays a 5-1 lead.<\/p>\n

Yandy D\u00edaz added a two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis to make it 7-3 in the eighth.<\/p>\n

Cleveland, which won the AL Central and came back to beat the Chicago White Sox in their Division Seres by winning three straight, had advanced to the World Series four times since winning its most recent title by beating the Boston Braves in the 1948 World Series.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 For yet another season, Cleveland baseball fans will have to wait. The city\u2019s proud…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[167746,169602,169534,109158,138647,84499,169076,110,135,137,136,71145],"class_list":["post-432702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-cade-smith","tag-daniel-espino","tag-gavin-williams","tag-hunter-gaddis","tag-jose-ramirez","tag-junior-caminero","tag-shawn-armstrong","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-victor-mesa-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432702","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=432702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}