ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays and their fans are all too familiar with the nightmare Tropicana Field can be for visiting clubs, and that’s without the place being alive in the way it was Monday night. Pulsating with the atmosphere created by a crowd of 35,361 rather than speakers blaring music and promos at aggressive volumes, the dome was hostile well beyond an absurdly baseball-coloured roof, the rings that hang above the field of play and the speedy turf covering the surface.
The Tampa Bay Rays missed the Trop the last time they played in the American League Championship Series – when they beat the Houston Astros in seven games at San Diego’s Petco Park during the 2020 pandemic season. And their displacement last year, after Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof and forced the team to take refuge at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training home in Tampa, factored into a 77-85 finish.
“It was the easiest transition for us to just go 30 minutes down the road to get there, but it was definitely different,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “I feel like for many years, we've created a home-field advantage here for us. And we didn't necessarily feel that last season. But walking in here, after spring training and seeing what had been done and the improvements and the modifications and the amount of work, it was overwhelming. And I know our guys really appreciated being back home.”
That home-field advantage showed up immediately in the franchise’s third trip to the ALCS, as Yandy Diaz led off bottom one with a 114.6 m.p.h. liner that skipped past Cleveland Guardians left-fielder Steven Kwan for a double. RBI singles by Junior Caminero and Jonny DeLuca opened up a two-run lead, but, critically, starter Foster Griffin limited the damage by striking out Taylor Walls with the bases loaded to end the frame.
The Guardians shook off the chaos and settled into their game from there, suffocating the Rays offence while grinding Drew Rasmussen until he surrendered solo shots to Chase DeLauter leading off the sixth and Patrick Bailey to open the seventh, and then delivering the finishing blow in the eighth on Nathaniel Lowe’s two-run single.
Even after Cedric Mullins’ solo shot in the bottom of the eighth off Edmonton native Erik Sabrowski pulled the Rays back within one, the Guardians didn’t flinch, padding their lead on Jose Ramirez’s RBI single and Jo Adell's two-run double in the top of the ninth before Cade Smith, the all-star closer from Abbotsford, B.C., handled the bottom half on six pitches to secure a 7-3 win.
“Yeah, it feels good to see some balls fall, to see some guys get on the barrel, to see some guys have some great at-bats, because the first two games of the White Sox series, we got beat. We did,” Lowe said, referencing the club’s rally in the division series against Chicago. “Whether it's beating ourselves trying to do too much or not feeling it, we had to go get our backs against the wall and do something crazy, and this group did. It's nice to feel some momentum coming here and to take Game 1.”
They ripped that momentum from the hands of the Rays, whose only saving grace from a lost night is that Caminero avoided serious injury from a frightening collision with DeLuca, as they both chased a fly ball into foul territory in the ninth. DeLuca clipped the third baseman’s upper body and tumbled to the turf while Caminero initially stayed up, but eventually dropped to the ground with the wind knocked out of him, said Cash.
Caminero remained in the game, as fans chanted, “M-V-P,” but there was no turning the Rays’ fortunes.
The Guardians start lefty Parker Messick in Game 2 Tuesday night against Freddy Peralta, who can expect the same degree of pressure Rasmussen faced in the opener.
“They take very good at-bats,” said Peralta. “They swing at the ball very well. They're looking all the time for damage, but they are very disciplined at the plate.”
Coming off eight innings of shutout ball against the Yankees in the division-series opener, when he carried a no-hitter into the seventh, Rasmussen faced a totally different type of attack from Cleveland.
Kwan opened the game with an eight-pitch strikeout and Ramirez followed with a single on the seventh pitch of his at-bat. Though he was caught stealing, DeLauter followed with the first of his three hits, as Rasmussen surrendered more in a span of three batters than he did over eight innings versus New York.
Even as he put up zeroes, the Guardians didn’t let up, reaching base in every inning but the fifth while fouling the ball off on 27 of their 52 swings versus Rasmussen. His last pitch was his first of the seventh, a cutter that Bailey parked in centre field to tie the game 2-2, spoiling an otherwise outstanding six innings with eight hits, no walks and seven strikeouts.
“I thought he was outstanding. I thought he threw an incredible ball game,” said Cash. “You’ve got to give credit to Cleveland's lineup. They really put some pitches on him and some longer at-bats early on.”
As the Guardians kept building innings, leading to the late payoff, the Rays went quiet at the plate, managing only three hits and two walks after the two-run first.
Lowe eventually broke through with his single off fellow lefty Ian Seymour after Ramirez opened the inning with a single and DeLauter followed with a double off Tyler Wells. The first baseman who was drafted by and debuted with the Rays and acquired from Cincinnati at the deadline fought off a 92.8 m.p.h. heater up and in and flared it just past Walls, at shortstop, and a drawn-in infield.
“That's who they are,” said Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. “Obviously we came off an emotional series, had a quick turnaround, but these guys come ready to play every day. Couldn't be more proud of them.
“We got punched early. And our pitching staff, credit to them for stopping it and keeping us in the game as long as they did and the offence came alive. I thought we had great at-bats the whole game. Just couldn't get that one hit with runners in scoring position and then hitting a couple balls out of the yard made it a new game. Really good job by our offence.”
Especially in a place where opponents can encounter difficulties that are unique to Tropicana Field along with those that are standard on the road when the stakes are this high. The Rays hadn’t lost a game since the final day of the regular season on Sept. 27, and were rested and primed after rolling the Yankees during a division-series sweep, too, but the Guardians were up to the challenge and this ALCS is really on now.
1:58