ST. PETERSBURG – The Guardians have landed the first punch in the ALCS, stunning the widely favored Rays with a come-from-behind win in Game 1 on Monday night.
The Guardians’ 7-3 win looked so much different for the first six innings, with the Rays in full control and playing their famous, airtight brand of baseball. Once that door cracked open, though, the Guardians burst through with the combination of power and timely hitting that got them here in the first place.
That’s four consecutive wins now for the Guardians, who in the ALDS became just the 11th team to lose the first two games of a best-of-five postseason series but then come back to win it. The Rays are a perennial powerhouse and the top team in the American League by a wide margin coming off a 98-win season, but now they’re the team playing from behind after Game 1.
Home runs from Chase DeLauter and Patrick Bailey initially tied the game for the Guardians, and Bailey’s big swing will be the one held under a microscope until we all move on to Game 2 Tuesday night. Rays ace Drew Rasmussen was at 90 pitches through six innings and looked excellent outside of DeLauter’s opposite-field shot, but when the Rays chose to bring Rasmussen back out for the seventh, Bailey sent the first pitch he saw 436 feet to right-center, the longest of his MLB career.
Nathaniel Lowe delivered the big blow, though, with a two-run single up the gut to score DeLauter and José Ramírez in the eighth and finally put the Guardians in front. A three-run Cleveland ninth provided the final margin.