ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Freddy Peralta threw 5 \u00b9\/\u2083 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy D\u00edaz each hit a two-run homer and the Rays beat the Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise\u2019s 29 seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Rays will face the Brewers<\/a> in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980, when the Phillies beat the Royals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe got one more bite!\u201d Rays manager Kevin Cash told his team as the clubhouse celebration started.\u00a0<\/p>\n The loss extended Cleveland\u2019s World Series championship drought to 78 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Yandy Diaz celebrates his two-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians during the eighth inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. AP Photo\/Chris O’Meara<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t be more proud of our group,\u201d Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cIt just hurts. It stings. Really felt like we had a team to go and just weren\u2019t able to get there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On the 18-year anniversary of their first AL pennant in 2008, the Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the second inning on Richie Palacios\u2019 two-run double and clinched it with closer Bryan Baker on the mound.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Guardians wouldn\u2019t give up and had the go-ahead run at first base in the eighth when Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to leave the bases loaded after two runs scored.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate after defeating the Cleveland Guardians in game six of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Getty Images<\/p>\n Peralta, the ALCS MVP, allowed one run and five hits to earn his second win of the series in his third appearance. He pitched six scoreless innings to win Game 2 and got two outs in relief in Game 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted \u201cLet\u2019s go Rays!\u201d throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof<\/a> two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rays played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at the Yankees\u2019 spring training complex<\/a>, got new ownership before this season and secured a new stadium deal<\/a> to be ready in 2029 near the NFL\u2019s Buccaneers. They returned to the Trop to win 55 games in the regular season. Only the Brewers had that many home wins this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is for you!\u201d Caminero yelled to the crowd from a microphone on the field after the game. \u201cLet\u2019s go! I can\u2019t hear you!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After sweeping the Yankees in the Division Series, the Rays fell behind the Guardians 0-1 and 1-2 in this series before taking three straight games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta (51) celebrates closing out the side during the third inning of Game 6 of the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n Caminero gave Tampa Bay a cushion with his first career postseason homer in the seventh inning. The two-time All-Star sent a drive off the left-field foul pole to give the Rays a 5-1 lead, becoming the first player to go deep on a splitter by All-Star closer Cade Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n Caminero turned around before reaching first base, looked toward his dugout and pounded his chest with both arms, cupped his ear rounding second to hear more cheers, stopped before reaching the plate, pointed into the stands and crossed his arms before crossing home.\u00a0<\/p>\n Caminero hit 42 homers in the regular season but needed 33 at-bats to get his first in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Guardians answered against Tyler Wells and Ian Seymour by loading the bases on two singles and a walk with two outs. Seymour walked Patrick Bailey to force in one run and hit Angel Mart\u00ednez with a pitch to force in another. Kelly entered and fanned Rocchio on three changeups.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCredit to our guys. It\u2019s a gut punch there in the seventh. And our guys came right back,\u201d Vogt said. \u201cOur guys never quit. They never stopped fighting. That\u2019s who they are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n D\u00edaz, who guaranteed a Game 6 victory through an interpreter on Sunday, gave the Rays another four-run lead with a two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis in the bottom of the eighth.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Junior Caminero (13) celebrates after hitting a two-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians during the seventh inning in Game 6 of the MLB American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. Gary Bogdon\/UPI\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Caminero led off the Tampa Bay second with single off opener Shawn Armstrong, who took the loss in his second start in three games. Left-hander Tim Herrin replaced Armstrong. Chandler Simpson reached on a fielder\u2019s choice and stole second before Victor Mesa Jr. walked. Simpson advanced to third on Jonny DeLuca\u2019s flyout to center. After Mesa stole second, Palacios looped a double to right-center for a 2-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n Armstrong, who was the opener in Game 4, faced the first four batters, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history to start a game after pitching both of the previous two days.\u00a0<\/p>\n DeLuca\u2019s sacrifice fly off Joey Cantillo made it 3-0 in the third but the Rays missed an opportunity to break it open with more runs after they loaded the bases with no outs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nathaniel Lowe\u2019s RBI single in the sixth drove in Cleveland\u2019s first run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Freddy Peralta threw 5 \u00b9\/\u2083 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy D\u00edaz each hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3820,3817,163001,110,202,204,203,199,201,200,3815],"class_list":["post-432748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432748","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=432748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}