The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians 6-5 at Progressive Field on Tuesday night, thanks to right fielder Harold Ramírez’s two-run double with two outs in the 11th inning, snapping the Guardians’ seven-game winning streak.
The Rays’ win also helped them close the gap in the American League Wild Card race. They are second in the wild-card race, 85-69, just one and a half games behind the Toronto Blue Jays (87-68), who lost to the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. The Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker over Tampa Bay.
The 28-year-old Ramírez doubled down the left-field line on a 1-2 pitch from Guardian’s Trevor Stephan (6-5) to score shortstops Taylor Walls, who advanced to third on a wild pitch, and Wander “El Patron” Franco, who drew a walk and stole second.
“It looked like Harold pulled that one from the ground and pulled it down the line for a big double,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.
“That was the baserunning play of the game [from Walls],” Cash said. “We’ve learned over time that you’ve got to get two to win most of these extra-inning games”.
Tuesday game
Pitcher Javy Guerra (2-0) earned the win after pitching one inning, and Tampa Bay’s ninth pitcher, Calvin Faucher, pitched the 11th for his first career save, striking out Cleveland’s first baseman Josh Naylor and outfielder Oscar Gonzalez after allowing an unearned run on José Ramírez’s single.
“It was very exciting,” Faucher said. “I was happy they had the confidence in me to get that out. … You see each guy go in and you realize it could be you, so you try to be as prepared as you can”.
Tampa Bay’s Jose Siri hit a two-run homer and scored four times in the fourth off Guardians starter, Shane Bieber, who may have been hampered by a 23-minute rain delay in the third.
“Felt good in my delivery,” Bieber said. “Felt good coming out of the weather delay and then somewhere in there had a little bit of a lapse and gave up a few extra-base hits and would have liked a few pitches back, obviously”.
Pitcher Corey Kluber, making his first career start, lasted only four innings against the Guardians, his previous team from 2011 to 2019. He struck out five batters while allowing three runs on eight hits and one walk.
“Yeah I would imagine, that’s fair,” Cash said. “[The Guardians] found hits. They can certainly square balls up, but I don’t think that they squared everything up. … The rain delay had an effect and they drove his pitch count up”.
After Cleveland added two runs in the final inning, Tampa Bay’s bullpen retained the Guardians scoreless until the eighth inning, when pitcher Jason Adam allowed the tying run on an infield single by center fielder Myles Straw. Pete Fairbanks and Javy Guerra pitched scoreless innings in the ninth and tenth innings, respectively, to set up Ramírez’s appearance.
Keeping eye on Hurricane Ian
While competing against the Guardians, Tampa Bay is also keeping an eye on Hurricane Ian, which is heading toward Florida. Many of the players who have families were planning to leave town to stay in less dangerous regions.
“A lot of thought, watching the news, watching the computer,” Cash said. “I know that the Tampa Bay area has been pretty fortunate over many, many years now”.
“But just thinking about everybody there and hopefully that people have done right to prepare and that wherever it goes it doesn’t hit as hard as the speculation”.
Fairbanks’ wife, Lydia, and her two children traveled to the Miami area. “Hopefully nothing too bad hits them,” the pitcher said.