ST. PETERSBURG — The Tampa Bay Rays evened the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night, beating the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 in Game 2 behind six shutout innings from Freddy Peralta and a fourth-inning rally set up by a José Ramírez fielding error. The result, detailed in MLB.com's full game recap, squares the best-of-seven series at 1-1 and sends it back to Cleveland for Game 3 on Thursday.
Cleveland had taken the opener 7-3 on Monday, but Game 2 was a far tighter, scoreless affair until the bottom of the fourth. With runners aboard, Ben Williamson hit a grounder to Ramírez that appeared headed for an inning-ending double play. Instead the ball skipped through the third baseman's legs, allowing Victor Mesa Jr. to score. Two batters later, Liam Hicks ripped a two-run single off Guardians starter Parker Messick, and the Rays had the only runs they would need — a sequence MLB.com broke down inning by inning. Cleveland's lone run came in the seventh, when Chase DeLauter doubled home Patrick Bailey to make it 3-1, but the Guardians could push nothing further across. The final box score showed Tampa Bay out-hitting Cleveland 7-6 despite being outscored on hits, with all three Rays runs charged as unearned.
Peralta's Breakout Night
The bigger story was Peralta, who has transformed since Tampa Bay acquired him in a midseason trade from the Mets. He struck out six Guardians over six scoreless innings, needing 99 pitches, 29 of which cleared 97 mph — a jump from the 94.3 mph average fastball he carried through the regular season. His fastball to Jo Adell in the fifth inning registered 99.4 mph, the hardest pitch of his career. Chants of "Freddy! Freddy! Freddy!" rained down from the Tropicana Field crowd as he finished the sixth with a strikeout.
The adrenaline plays a big role. I define myself as a competitor, and I like these kinds of games. I've always said in the past that I enjoyed this as a Dominican pitcher. I grew up watching the games in D.R., and that's the type of game that you see. I feel that I have that in me, in myself.
Freddy Peralta, Rays starting pitcher
Guardians leadoff hitter Steven Kwan, who went 2-for-5 in the loss, said Peralta's command made him nearly impossible to solve. "It's already an elite fastball, but he was placing it at the top for strikes," Kwan said. "And then it felt like when he wanted to, he just put it a ball above. When he's doing that, it's pretty hard to lay off that, and the offspeeds were strikes as well. It felt like he had everything going today."
Reaction and What's Next
Rays manager Kevin Cash credited the break on the Ramírez play but pointed to what his hitters did immediately after it. "José Ramírez is as good as any third baseman there is in the game, and we were fortunate to maybe catch a break there," Cash said. "But once you catch the break, it's about what you do with it. Liam picked us up in a big way." Closer Bryan Baker, who worked the ninth for the save, praised Peralta's stuff since the trade: "Since he's been here, I think his fastball and changeup combo is one of the best in the game. It seems like whatever tweaks they worked on or usage, it's paying off big time."
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt did not blame his players for the sequence that broke the game open. "They've done that all year," Vogt said of the Rays. "When they smell blood, they take it and run. Obviously, we would like to take it back, but you can't. I thought we played an excellent game. I thought we pitched excellently... but I'm really proud of the way our guys battled."
The series now shifts to Progressive Field, where Cleveland will host Game 3 on Thursday at 6 p.m. ET in front of what is expected to be a packed house. The Guardians arrive having won four straight before Tuesday's loss, including a comeback from an 0-2 deficit against the White Sox in the ALDS, while the Rays enter as the favorites on the strength of an AL-best 98 regular-season wins. History offers Cleveland a modest cushion: teams that split the first two games of a seven-game series have gone on to win it 55 of 102 times, and in League Championship Series play specifically, the team with home-field advantage in that scenario has won 24 of 40 such series, or 60 percent of the time.
