Summary
The Tampa Bay Rays are headed to the World Series for the third time in franchise history, defeating the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the Amer…
The Tampa Bay Rays are headed to the World Series for the third time in franchise history, defeating the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field on Monday night to close out the series four games to two.
Tampa Bay, which lost two of the first three games of the series, won three straight to complete the comeback. The Rays jumped ahead early in the clincher, with Richie Palacios doubling home two runs in the second inning and Jonny DeLuca adding a sacrifice fly in the third for a 3-0 lead.
Cleveland pushed across a run in the sixth to cut the deficit to 3-1, but the Rays answered in the seventh when third baseman Junior Caminero drove a two-run home run off the foul pole — his first homer of the playoffs — to make it 5-1. The Guardians scored twice in the eighth to pull within 5-3, before designated hitter Yandy Diaz sealed the pennant with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
The Rays (98-64) won the AL East and now advance to face the Milwaukee Brewers, who finished with baseball's best record at 103-59 and swept the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Milwaukee completed its sweep last Thursday with a 6-4 win in Game 4, overcoming an early four-run deficit on a go-ahead home run by Garrett Mitchell. Jake Bauers was named NLCS MVP after driving in six runs in the series.
The matchup, which opens Friday, carries a guarantee rare in championship sports: one of these franchises will win its first World Series title. Tampa Bay lost the 2008 World Series to Philadelphia in five games and the 2020 Series to the Dodgers in six. Milwaukee's only previous appearance came in 1982, when the Brewers fell to St. Louis in seven games.
The pairing also matches the two best regular-season records in the sport. The clubs met three times this year, all during the opening week of the season, with Milwaukee winning two of the three.
For the Rays, the pennant is the latest validation of an organization long known for building contenders on one of baseball's smallest payrolls, leaning on player development, defensive versatility and pitching depth. For the Brewers, it caps a wire-to-wire season in which they never really surrendered control of the NL Central.
One storyline followed Monday's game from the stands: Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk attended at Tropicana Field to support Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda, his childhood friend from Tijuana, Mexico. The two, who met at age four, were teammates for Mexico at this year's World Baseball Classic.
Source: TSN
