Rasmussen fires seven strong as Rays take 3-2 ALCS lead with 3-1 win over Guardians

Drew Rasmussen allowed one run over seven innings as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series on Sunday, giving Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The outing secured Rasmussen's second postseason victory.

Rasmussen surrendered four hits, walked one and struck out six in the start, and teammates praised his stuff; Jonny DeLuca said: "It gets kind of boring out there because it’s incredible the stuff he has," adding, "But you like that because he’s your teammate." Rays manager Kevin Cash highlighted Rasmussen's fastball rhythm and the changeup's depth, saying: "The way he limited anything was really, really impressive," and noting, "He got in rhythm with the fastball. A lot of power to everything. Then the depth on the changeup throughout the outing was a big pitch for him." Rasmussen had given up two runs over six innings in the opener and is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three postseason starts, striking out 23 and walking three.

Rasmussen increased his changeup usage from 12 throws in the opener to 27 on Sunday, 21 of them for strikes; he said: "We were able to attack with the changeup a lot more tonight," and added, "The ability to drive the cutter to the top I thought was also another strength."

Tampa Bay manufactured a run in each of the first three innings — the first two against Parker Messick and the third off Tim Herrin — and their leadoff hitter reached base in the first four innings, scoring in the first three and reaching six times overall. Yandy Díaz produced three hits and scored on a bases-loaded walk by Messick to DeLuca in the first after leading off with a line-drive double to center; Jonathan Aranda's single drove in Ben Williamson in the second, and Liam Hicks's looped curveball to center scored Chandler Simpson in the third. Cash said: "I think we took advantage of getting ourselves in some favorable counts and getting some big hits," and added that the Guardians' bullpen mix later made it challenging to piece together big innings.

Cleveland threatened in the seventh when Steven Kwan and José Ramírez singled with two outs and Chase DeLauter grounded an RBI single between first and second. Cam Booser and Tyler Wells combined to work the eighth, with Wells striking out Ramírez to strand a runner, before Bryan Baker converted his 35th straight save chance in the ninth — Baker's fifth save of this postseason — as Jo Adell was on second base when Travis Bazzana closed the game with a groundout.

Kwan accounted for two of Cleveland's five hits and made two defensive plays on the afternoon, throwing out Taylor Walls trying to score from second on Aranda's fourth-inning single and making a leaping catch at the center-field wall on Victor Mesa Jr's eighth-inning drive to save a run. Messick recorded the shortest outing of his major league career, failing to get past the third inning for the second time in four postseason starts, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks while throwing 34 of 57 pitches for strikes.

Tampa Bay have won the last two games and will try to capture their third AL pennant and first since 2020 on Monday at Tropicana Field in St Petersburg, Florida. Game 7, if needed, would be Tuesday, and the World Series starts Friday at NL champions Milwaukee.