Rays 3, Guardians 1: Rasmussen, Three Early Runs, a 3-2 Lead

Seven innings, one run, and a shout toward first base

October 18, 2026 - Cleveland - Nathaniel Lowe led off the seventh with a line-drive single. Drew Rasmussen had already given Cleveland one run. Game 1 of this series had ended his night on a Patrick Bailey homer before he recorded a seventh-inning out. Sunday he got Travis Bazzana to pop, then Bailey bounced into a double play. Rasmussen stepped off the mound, looked into the Tampa Bay dugout on the first-base side, and shouted.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 in American League Championship Series Game 5. Tampa Bay leads 3-2. Friday's rainout stuffed Saturday and Sunday into the same weekend. First pitch 5:08 p.m. Clear. 63 degrees. Wind 8 mph, left to right. Attendance 36,303. Two hours, 50 minutes.

Tampa Bay finished with 12 hits, two doubles, and no homers. Cleveland finished with five hits, no extra-base hits, and one run on a groundout. That is the file.

A warning-track double, then a walk that stood

Parker Messick had two innings in him. He did not have a third.

Yandy Díaz led off with a line-drive double over Petey Halpin. The Associated Press recap had it bouncing on the warning track and off the wall. Jonathan Aranda flew to center. Ryan Vilade walked. Junior Caminero struck out swinging. Chandler Simpson chopped a single to Brayan Rocchio. Bases loaded.

Jonny DeLuca walked. Díaz scored. Vilade went to third. Simpson went to second. Bailey challenged the pitch. The call stood. 1-0, Tampa Bay. Liam Hicks forced DeLuca at second. Messick had already given the Rays the first run of the night on a walk.

Rasmussen's first inning was not empty. Steven Kwan flew foul to Simpson. José Ramírez grounded to Aranda. Chase DeLauter singled to center with two outs. Jo Adell struck out swinging. The Associated Press recap put that as the last Cleveland hit for a while. Rasmussen then retired nine in a row.

One through the left side, then a curveball to center

Ben Williamson opened the second with a sharp single to DeLauter. Taylor Walls popped foul to Lowe. Díaz singled through the right side. Aranda grounded one to Kwan. Williamson scored. 2-0. Vilade and Caminero both struck out. Two runs, two innings, and Messick was already at 57 pitches.

The MLB recap had Messick chased after two innings. The Associated Press recap called it the shortest outing of his big league career: two innings, five hits, two earned, two walks, three strikeouts, 34 of 57 pitches for strikes. He fell to 0-3 this postseason.

Tim Herrin inherited the third. Simpson doubled to right. DeLuca grounded to Ramírez, Simpson holding. Hicks looped a fly-ball single to Halpin. Simpson scored. 3-0. Williamson bounced into a 5-4-3 double play. The third run was the last run Tampa Bay would score. It was also enough.

Rasmussen struck out Halpin, got Rocchio to second, and got Kwan to short in the third. Lowe and Bazzana struck out in the second. The Guardians hit the ball on the ground and watched it stay in the infield.

Kwan threw one home. DeLauter scored one.

Walls bunted for a single to open the fourth. Díaz popped foul to Lowe. Aranda lined a single to Kwan in left. Walls tried to score from second. Kwan threw him out at the plate, Kwan to Bailey. Victor Mesa Jr. flew to Kwan. The extra run never arrived.

Rasmussen walked Adell in the fourth after a pitch-result challenge went Cleveland's way. Lowe struck out on a foul tip. That was the only walk Rasmussen issued. Statcast, in the MLB recap, had the Guardians hitting six balls out of the infield against him and only three hard-hit balls all night. Two of those were outs.

Cleveland's run came in the sixth, not later. Rocchio lined out to Simpson. Kwan singled to center. Ramírez singled to right, Kwan to third. DeLauter grounded to Aranda. Kwan scored. Ramírez went to second. 3-1. Adell popped to Williamson. ESPN's scoring summary and the MLB live feed both have that as a groundout, not a hit. One run, two singles, a ground ball.

The seventh that did not repeat Game 1

Rasmussen came back for the seventh anyway. Lowe singled. Bazzana popped foul to Caminero. Bailey hit into a 4-6-3, Williamson to Walls to Aranda. Rasmussen was through seven: four hits, one earned, one walk, six strikeouts, 95 pitches, 69 strikes, 10 groundouts, the win (2-0). The MLB recap said he is the first pitcher in Rays history with multiple postseason starts of at least seven innings and one or zero runs allowed. He has done it twice in three starts this October.

"The way he limited anything was really, really impressive," Kevin Cash told the Associated Press. "He got in rhythm with the fastball. A lot of power to everything. Then the depth on the changeup throughout the outing was a big pitch for him."

Rasmussen used the changeup 12 times in Game 1, that recap said, and 27 times on Sunday, 21 of them strikes. "We were able to attack with the changeup a lot more tonight," he said. "The ability to drive the cutter to the top I thought was also another strength."

DeLuca, standing in the outfield while all of that happened: "It gets kind of boring out there because it's incredible the stuff he has. But you like that because he's your teammate."

The MLB recap had Rasmussen talking about winning, not the franchise line. "Winning this time of year is the most important thing. Just doing everything you can to help your team to achieve that. It's one of those things where every win is so much better and every loss is so much worse."

Cam Booser and Tyler Wells took the eighth. Angel Martínez flew to Mesa. Rocchio grounded to Walls. Kwan singled. Wells struck out Ramírez. Hold for both.

Bryan Baker closed the ninth: DeLauter walked, Adell forced him at second, Lowe popped foul to Aranda, Bazzana grounded to Richie Palacios. Save No. 5 this postseason. The Associated Press recap put it as his 35th straight converted chance.

Díaz finished 3-for-5 with the first-inning double. Simpson went 2-for-3 with a double, a steal, and the run that made it 3-0. Hicks went 2-for-3 with the RBI single. Aranda went 2-for-5 with the second-inning RBI. Kwan had two of Cleveland's five hits and the throw that cut down Walls.

Messick, in the MLB recap, on the Tampa Bay lineup: "I think they're just a really unselfish team, and they're willing to kind of take their at-bats away and shoot balls through holes instead of trying to take big swings. I think they're a really talented lineup in the way that they have some power and they have some guys that just know how to fight. They're doing a good job of playing their game right now."

Monday is the Trop, with Peralta lined up

Game 6 is Monday at Tropicana Field. Freddy Peralta starts for Tampa Bay, his third appearance of the series after six scoreless in Game 2 and two-thirds of an inning Saturday. Cleveland had not named a starter in the Associated Press recap. Stephen Vogt ruled out Gavin Williams. Game 7, if needed, is Tuesday. The World Series opens Friday in Milwaukee.

"It's a great opportunity. All of us are thinking of it. But it all ends tomorrow. We're going to win tomorrow," Díaz told the AP after three hits.

Vogt, in the same recap: "We know we've got our work cut out for us. It's a really good team and a really good team when they play at home, especially. We know this is going to be tough but if there's a group I'm betting on to get this done, it's our guys."

In the MLB recap he was shorter: "We need to rebound tomorrow. I know we're going to have a tough matchup tomorrow. But we need to get guys on base and we need to score runs. And we just haven't done that enough over the last two days."

Cleveland came back from 0-2 against the White Sox in the ALDS. Sunday was not the last game of the series. It sent the next one to St. Petersburg with Tampa Bay one win from the pennant.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Tampa Bay at 8 team fantasy points on a 3-1. Cleveland sat at -2. Rasmussen had 24 pitching FP on seven innings, one earned, and a quality start (six innings and three earned or fewer). Simpson led hitters at 6. Fantasy points measure the night. Share price is what the market pays. They move together, but they are not the same number. See dynamic pricing.

Track the Rays and Guardians on the marketplace. Information only; not financial advice.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; MLB.com recap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; Associated Press recap via ESPN; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*