CLEVELAND — Drew Rasmussen held the Cleveland Guardians to four hits and one walk while striking out six over seven innings Sunday evening at Progressive Field, carrying the Tampa Bay Rays to a 3-1 victory in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series and a 3-2 series lead.
The win sends the Rays home to Tropicana Field one victory away from the franchise’s third trip to the World Series. Rasmussen has now made 15 starts since a two-out relief appearance in his second All-Star Game, with Tampa Bay winning 14 of those games — including Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees and Game 5 of the ALCS.
“The way he limited anything was really, really impressive,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Rasmussen’s changeup was the decisive weapon. He threw it to Cleveland’s left-handed hitters 27 times, a career-high 28% of his 95 pitches on the night, and they did not record a single hit against it. “It’s probably been the single greatest addition I’ve made to my repertoire in the entirety of my career,” Rasmussen said.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt acknowledged the difficulty of squaring up against Rasmussen’s arsenal. “Three fastballs and a really good changeup,” Vogt said. “I thought we worked some good counts against him. I thought we laid off some tough pitches. But it’s really hard to square up with three fastballs like that, and he had them all working.”
Rasmussen permitted a two-out single to Chase DeLauter in the first inning, then retired nine batters in a row and 14 of the next 15 he faced. Cleveland scratched across its only run on two singles and a groundout in the sixth. He returned for the seventh — where he had surrendered a game-tying homer to Patrick Bailey and walked off without recording an out in Game 1 last Monday at Tropicana Field — and this time retired Travis Bazzana before getting Bailey to hit into an inning-ending double play.
The performance made Rasmussen the only pitcher in Rays franchise history with multiple postseason starts of at least seven innings allowing one or zero runs, and the first Rays pitcher to record three straight quality starts in the postseason. Since the All-Star break, he is 11-0 with a 1.73 ERA, 99 strikeouts and only 18 walks in 93 2/3 innings. The last pitcher in the majors to put together two such postseason starts before the World Series in a single postseason was the Giants’ Logan Webb in 2021.
Rays DH Yandy Díaz, speaking through interpreter Kevin Vera, did not mince words. “I say this with respect to every single Major League pitcher out there, but I really do think he’s the best pitcher in MLB,” Díaz said.
Infielder Ben Williamson offered a simpler verdict: “Just what he’s been doing all year. Just lights out.”
Game 6 of the ALCS shifts to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the Rays will have a chance to clinch a World Series berth on their home turf.