A Ramírez Error and Peralta’s Heater Even the ALCS

José Ramírez’s error led to three unearned runs as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 in ALCS Game 2. Freddy Peralta threw six shutout innings at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and catcher Liam Hicks followed the misplay with a two-run single.

The American League Championship Series is tied 1-1. Game 3 is Thursday night in Cleveland.

Three Unearned Runs Come Off One Glove

For three innings it was a scoreless game of choppers, challenges, and stranded runners. The fourth inning did not look different until it was. Junior Caminero walked to start it. Victor Mesa Jr. hit a grounder that was called a double play until Tampa Bay challenged first and second, and video review overturned first-base umpire Mark Ripperger on Mesa.

Jonny DeLuca struck out. Chandler Simpson then beat out a high chopper to shortstop, and Mesa went to third standing up because Ramírez never covered the bag. Ben Williamson followed with a grounder that hit the edge where the artificial turf meets the infield dirt and scooted under Ramírez’s glove. The third baseman had played back rather than charging. Mesa scored. Simpson went to third. Williamson took second.

THE FOURTH INNING, PLAY BY PLAY

• Caminero: Leadoff walk, the inning’s first crack.
• Mesa Jr.: Force at second, then ruled safe at first after the Rays won the review.
• Simpson: Infield single; Mesa takes third when Ramírez fails to cover.
• Williamson: Grounder through Ramírez’s legs; Mesa scores, 1-0, still two out.
• Hicks: Single to right-center; Simpson and Williamson score, 3-0.

Hicks, batting eighth, said he saw the pitch up and put the barrel on it. “I gotta make it count. Make them pay for that (error). That’s a team that doesn’t really make those types of errors,” the catcher said. A towel-waving, cowbell crowd of 32,125, about 3,000 fewer than Monday, made the park sound larger than the number.

It looked like it took that first hop, Josey kind of got stuck. It looked like he just didn’t move his feet.

Stephen Vogt, Guardians manager, after Game 2

Rays manager Kevin Cash did not pile on. “José Ramírez is as good as any third baseman there is in the game, and we were fortunate to maybe catch a break there,” Cash said. Cleveland finished with six hits and that one error. Tampa Bay had seven hits and none.

José Ramírez Had Just Saved Cleveland

Saturday night in Cleveland, the same player had ended Chicago’s season. Steven Kwan singled to open the fourth inning of ALDS Game 5. Ramírez golfed Sean Burke’s knuckle-curve, a pitch Statcast put at 0.74 feet off the dirt, just over the right-field wall for a two-run homer in a 2-0 win. It was the lowest postseason home run pitch in the tracking era that began in 2008, and the lowest Ramírez has homered on in a 14-year career.

In that AB, I was looking for a curveball for strike. So I was able to get my legs and get a good contact.

José Ramírez, Guardians third baseman, through an interpreter after ALDS Game 5

That swing helped Cleveland become the 11th team to come back from an 0-2 hole in a best-of-five. Gavin Williams struck out 12 that night. Ramírez had already driven in runs in Games 3 and 4 in Chicago after surgery on a broken bone in his left hand, an injury from a swing on June 13. Three days later, in St. Petersburg, a grounder at the turf seam undid the lead he never got to protect.

If he gloves Williamson’s ball, Game 2 stays 0-0 into the seventh, when Chase DeLauter doubled in Cleveland’s only run. That is a 1-0 Guardians win and a 2-0 series flying home. The error did not add on. It was the game.

Peralta’s Fastball Finally Sounds Like October

Peralta did not need a fourth run. The right-hander went six innings, four hits, two walks, six strikeouts, no runs, on 99 pitches, his most as a Ray and the longest postseason outing of his career. He got the second postseason win of his career while the crowd chanted his first name.

Of those 99 pitches, 71 were four-seam fastballs. One of them, fouled off by Jo Adell in the fifth, was 99.4 mph, the fastest pitch of his career. He reached 97 mph 29 times, after a career-best 20 such pitches against the Yankees in ALDS Game 2, and he threw three four-seamers at 99.0 mph or faster after doing that only five times in his career before Tuesday. His regular-season four-seam average was 94.3 mph.

PERALTA, THREE STRETCHES

He has now won each of his last eight starts, six in the regular season and one in each playoff round, and he has allowed zero or one run in all eight. “It’s no secret that I trust in my fastball a lot and it’s my best pitch,” Peralta said. After Adell fouled off the 99.4, Peralta came back at 99.0 and got a lineout to center that left two on. He then retired the side in the sixth. Petey Halpin swung through a 3-2 changeup. Peralta screamed and hopped off the mound.

“I was looking for that strikeout,” he said. “I tried my best on the pitch before with the fastball, but he was able to make contact. Thank God I was able to finish it on the next pitch.” Hicks, who caught him, called him Fastball Freddy for a reason. “He’s one of the hardest workers you’ll come across in the game,” Hicks said.

The Mets Dealt Him Three Prospects in August

New York sent Peralta to Tampa Bay on Aug. 2 for outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre, and right-hander Gary Gill Hill. The Rays were 65-45 that morning, 3½ games up in the AL East. President of baseball operations Erik Neander called him a proven starter with high-stakes experience. The Mets had brought him over from Milwaukee in the winter after a 17-6, 2.70 ERA season in 33 starts in 2025, then watched the walk year stall at a 4.99 ERA through 22 starts.

His full 2026 line still reads 10-11 with a 4.42 ERA in 169 innings and 156 strikeouts, because the Mets months sit in the same row as October. The version that showed up at the Trop on Tuesday, 30 years old and out of Moca, Dominican Republic, is the one Tampa Bay paid those three names to get.

Plant City Comes to the Trop and Leaves With a Loss

Parker Messick grew up about 45 minutes away in Plant City, a Florida State left-hander the Guardians took in the second round in 2022. He was 7 on Oct. 23, 2008, when he watched World Series Game 2 at this ballpark, Rays 4, Phillies 2. He has taken laps around the warning track with Little League banners. Plant City threw a watch party. A large group made the drive.

I have so many good memories here. It’s an awesome experience every time I get to step out there. To be able to do it on this stage now is just an incredible opportunity. Thankful to the Lord for that. So hopefully it will be a good one.

Parker Messick, Guardians starter, before Game 2

He had earned the ball. Messick went 12-9 with a 2.56 ERA, 186.1 innings, and 193 strikeouts in the regular season and was in the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year talk. Against the Rays he had allowed one run in six innings on Sept. 7, 2025, at George M. Steinbrenner Field and one run in 7 2/3 innings at the Trop on July 26. Vogt had pointed to those two starts in front of family.

Tuesday he went five innings, six hits, two walks, three strikeouts, and three unearned runs. None of the runs were earned. He still took the loss. In ALDS Game 4 he had lasted 2 1/3 innings on 65 pitches with two runs and four walks. He had said then that missed pitches by tiny margins became walks, and that he felt fine. The Trop did not beat him with hard contact. It beat him when his third baseman missed a hop.

A Finger Wag and a Perfect Ninth

Caminero played. On Monday he and DeLuca had collided on Brayan Rocchio’s foul pop into the Cleveland bullpen, Caminero’s left shoulder meeting DeLuca, both going down. Cash said after Game 1 that Caminero had the wind knocked out of him and was OK. The third baseman, who played all 162 games and hit 42 home runs, doubled in the first Tuesday, walked to open the fourth, then in the fifth leaped to his left, snagged Steven Kwan’s liner, and wagged a finger at the batter.

Cleveland had won four straight playoff games for the first time since the first six of 2016, including the 7-3 ALCS opener on Monday on homers from DeLauter and Patrick Bailey and a two-run single from Nathaniel Lowe. That had been Tampa Bay’s first loss since the Sept. 27 regular-season finale, after a sweep of the Yankees. The 98-win Rays, 55-26 at home, looked like themselves again once they had the lead.

Kevin Kelly got two outs in the seventh and retired Ramírez on a fly to center with two on. Ian Seymour came in. DeLauter lined an RBI double to the right-field corner. Seymour struck out Jo Adell on a changeup, leaving runners at second and third, then threw a 1-2-3 eighth. Bryan Baker finished a perfect ninth for his fourth postseason save. Peralta and the three relievers never needed a fourth run.

Who Starts Thursday in Cleveland?

The Rays announced Griffin Jax for Game 3, his first postseason start. Jax went 8-10 with a 3.52 ERA in the regular season and allowed one run with four strikeouts in two innings of relief against the Yankees. Nick Martinez, 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA, had started ALDS Game 3 in New York (two runs, five hits, 3 2/3 innings) and took an Anthony Volpe liner off his lower back as that outing ended. Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76) is on schedule for Cleveland. Williams started Games 2 and 5 against the White Sox and threw an inning in Game 4, totaling 24 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings with two runs and six hits.

THE REST OF THE ALCS

• Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 15, 6 p.m. ET at Progressive Field (TBS, truTV, HBO Max, UniMás).
• Game 4: Friday, Oct. 16, 6 p.m. ET in Cleveland.
• Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m. ET in Cleveland.
• Games 6-7: Monday, Oct. 19, and Tuesday, Oct. 20, back at Tropicana Field if needed.

Teams with home-field advantage that split the first two games of a seven-game series have gone on to win 55 of 102 times (53.9%), including 24 of 40 in the LCS (60%). Cash called Progressive Field a hard place to play and as good an atmosphere as there is. Cleveland is 85-77. The next three are in that park. Hicks, who sat against lefty Foster Griffin in Game 1 and hit eighth against Messick, said this lineup is good enough that you can hit anywhere in it. On Tuesday the lineup needed the glove at third to miss, and then it needed Peralta to throw the ball he trusts.