Cleveland has its foot on the door. Up 2-1 in the American League Championship Series after Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Guardians can push Tampa Bay to the brink of elimination on Friday, when the teams meet in Game 4 at Progressive Field. The game is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and airs on TBS and HBO Max, with a Spanish-language broadcast on UniMas and Spanish-language radio on Univision’s TUDN Radio.
One caveat applies to everything about this series, including the clock: the weather. Rain in the Northeast Ohio forecast already forced Major League Baseball to move Game 3 up from 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, and MLB.com’s Game 4 preview notes that more schedule changes are possible. Fans planning their Friday around first pitch should keep an eye on updates.
How Cleveland grabbed control of the series
The Guardians arrived at this ALCS as the underdog, and they opened it loudly, scoring seven runs in a Game 1 win on Monday, Oct. 12. The Rays answered the next night. In Game 2, a fourth-inning error by Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez — a routine ground ball by Ben Williamson that skipped through his legs — opened the door for a run, and Rays catcher Liam Hicks made it hurt with a two-run single. Freddy Peralta did the rest, cruising through six scoreless innings with six strikeouts in a 3-1 Tampa Bay win.
Then came Game 3 on Thursday, and with it the pattern that has come to define this series: elite pitching, tight defense and one swing deciding everything. Petey Halpin provided it, drilling a go-ahead two-run homer that stood up in Cleveland’s 3-2 win. Chandler Simpson had accounted for all of the Rays’ offense with a two-run triple in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough.
“It’s really a dogfight,” Simpson said afterward. “It’s really like we’re looking in the mirror almost, and against our best pitchers, they’re having great ABs and they’re putting the ball in play and moving the ball forward.”
Game 4 pitching: a bullpen game against a familiar foe
The Guardians will piece together Friday’s game by committee. Right-hander Shawn Armstrong gets the ball as the opener, and his first task is a stiff one: facing Rays leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz and No. 3 hitter Junior Caminero, a pair of dangerous right-handed bats. Armstrong has been excellent this October, allowing one hit over 5 1/3 scoreless innings in four postseason appearances.
Behind him, left-hander Joey Cantillo is the likely candidate for bulk innings — he threw a scoreless frame on 17 pitches in Game 1 — with right-handers Tanner Bibee (33 starts this season) and Slade Cecconi (21) available to eat outs if needed. Daniel Espino, the 25-year-old who has served as an opener four times since September, has instead become a high-leverage middle-innings weapon in this series and pitched a scoreless inning in Game 3.
Tampa Bay counters with right-hander Nick Martinez, and the choice makes sense on paper. Martinez held the Guardians scoreless across 13 innings in two regular-season starts against them: seven shutout frames in a 1-0 win at Progressive Field on April 28, then six more in a 3-0 victory at Tropicana Field on July 25. He last pitched in Game 3 of the AL Division Series on Oct. 7 at Yankee Stadium, holding the Yankees to two runs on five hits over 3 2/3 innings in an abbreviated outing.
If the Rays survive Game 4, the road map ahead is favorable: ace Drew Rasmussen would be lined up for Game 5 on normal rest, with Freddy Peralta — Friday’s Game 2 winner — penciled in for a potential Game 6 back at Tropicana Field.
The lineups
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has stuck with a steady postseason mix, and MLB.com expects Friday’s lineup to look much like Thursday’s. Petey Halpin has started four straight games and earned another after his Game 3 homer:
- Steven Kwan, LF
- José Ramírez, 3B
- Chase DeLauter, RF
- Jo Adell, DH
- Nathaniel Lowe, 1B
- Travis Bazzana, 2B
- Patrick Bailey, C
- Petey Halpin, CF
- Brayan Rocchio, SS
The Rays’ batting order is harder to pin down with Cleveland’s pitching plans unclear, but MLB.com projects Tampa Bay’s “Big Three” at the top:
- Yandy Díaz, DH
- Jonathan Aranda, 1B
- Junior Caminero, 3B
- Victor Mesa Jr., RF
- Chandler Simpson, LF
- Liam Hicks, C
- Jonny DeLuca, CF
- Richie Palacios, 2B
- Taylor Walls, SS
Caminero and the cold top of the Rays order
Tampa Bay’s problem is simple, and manager Kevin Cash didn’t dress it up after his club fell behind 2-1: the Rays need to hit. The top third of the order — Díaz, Aranda and Caminero — went a combined 1-for-12 on Thursday, and Caminero struck out four times in an 0-for-4 day.
“They’ve been pitching us really well, but that’s what they do,” Caminero said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “They’ve been doing that all year long — to us, to other opponents. But we’ve just got to be better, we just have to make adjustments and go from there.”
Simpson has been the exception, a spark plug at the bottom of the order with a key single in Game 2’s three-run rally and the two-run triple in Game 3. The Rays will need more from everyone else if they want to force the series back to St. Petersburg.
What happened to Gavin Williams and Griffin Jax?
Thursday’s Game 3 was a study in contrasting workloads. Cleveland handed the ball to Gavin Williams, the 27-year-old right-hander who had thrown 210 pitches over six days against the Chicago White Sox in the AL Division Series — including a franchise-record-tying 12-strikeout performance in Game 5 as Cleveland climbed out of an 0-2 deficit. Williams finished the regular season with a 3.76 ERA and an AL-leading 248 strikeouts in 184 1/3 innings.
“I feel like that was kind of a normal workload for me,” Williams said before the game. “Body feels good. Arm feels good.”
Across the diamond, Griffin Jax made his first career postseason start. The 31-year-old converted reliever, acquired from the Minnesota Twins at last year’s trade deadline, posted a 3.14 ERA in 23 starts this season after opening the year in the bullpen. His buildup was modest — a single two-inning relief outing in the ALDS, on seven days’ rest, in an outing that followed a September line drive off his lower back that cut short a start against Philadelphia.
“It’s a big honor, one that I’ve been looking forward to for a really long time,” Jax said. “Looking forward to helping this team, starting this game.”
The rest of the ALCS schedule
If Game 4 goes the distance and beyond, here’s what remains (all times Eastern, all games on TBS, truTV and HBO Max):
- Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m. — Rays at Guardians
- Game 6: Monday, Oct. 19, 5 p.m. — Guardians at Rays
- Game 7: Tuesday, Oct. 20, 8 p.m. — Guardians at Rays
The stakes for Friday are blunt. A Cleveland win sends the series back to Tropicana Field with the Rays facing elimination. A Tampa Bay win resets everything and hands the momentum to a team that has already shown, in a 3-1 Game 2 win behind Peralta, that it can squeeze the life out of Cleveland’s lineup.
One injury note worth tracking: Rays left-hander Shane McClanahan, who ended the regular season on the injured list with left forearm tightness, has been shut down for the rest of the postseason, Cash said Sunday. Otherwise, both clubs report a clean bill of health — Caminero and DeLuca were checked out after a scary collision chasing a foul ball in Game 1 and said they were fine.
“It’s easy to feed off of this crowd,” Williams said of the home fans who will pack Progressive Field on Friday. “It’s a big baseball town, a big sports city. They love their sports here.”
By Friday night, Cleveland will know whether that crowd is cheering a team one win from the World Series — or bracing for a dogfight all the way back to Florida.
FAQ
What time is Guardians vs Rays ALCS Game 4?
Game 4 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Friday at Progressive Field in Cleveland, per MLB.com’s preview. Because rain already forced Game 3 to be moved from 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET, fans should watch for possible schedule changes.
What channel is the Guardians vs Rays game on?
ALCS games air on TBS and truTV and stream on HBO Max (also available via Fubo). Spanish-language broadcasts are on UniMas, with Spanish-language radio on Univision’s TUDN Radio.
Who is pitching in ALCS Game 4?
The Guardians are going with a bullpen game, with right-hander Shawn Armstrong as the opener and Joey Cantillo a candidate for bulk innings. The Rays start right-hander Nick Martinez, who threw 13 scoreless innings against Cleveland in two regular-season starts this year.
Who leads the Guardians-Rays ALCS?
Cleveland leads the best-of-seven series 2-1 after a 3-2 win in Game 3 on Thursday, powered by Petey Halpin’s go-ahead two-run homer.