Latest / Tampa Bay Rays Weekly / Tampa Bay Rays Game Review — Oct 19, 2026: 7-3 vs Cleveland Guardians

Transcript

Tampa Bay Rays Game Review — Oct 19, 2026: 7-3 vs Cleveland Guardians · Tampa Bay Rays Weekly

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, I'm Mike Michelson and if you were at
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Tropicana Field tonight, or if you were anywhere in the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: greater Tampa Bay area with a TV and a heart
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: that could beat fast enough, you already know what just happened.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: The Tampa Bay Rays are going to the World Series.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I need a minute to collect myself before I try
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to walk you through how this game unfolded. Because honestly,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: some of it doesn't need making sense, it just needs feelings.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Let me start at the end because that's where the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: emotion lives.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Bottom of the eighth.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Two outs, Tampa Bay up 5-3, and Yandy Diaz steps
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: into the box against Hunter Gattis. Now, if you've been
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: watching this team all year, you know Yandy is the
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: guy who hits line drives into gaps and makes contact
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: like a surgeon. He's not your typical slugger, but there
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: he is, and the ball is gone. Two-run homer to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: left field. The place absolutely shakes. And Yandy doesn't just
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: jog around the bases. He stops. He turns to the crowd.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: He gets a curtain call at Tropicana Field in an
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: ALCS game. And you can see the man is soaked
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in sweat and joy and 29 years of waiting for
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: this franchise to get back to the big dance he
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: earned every single second of that moment. But let me
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: take you back because this game had layers and the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: layers mattered. Freddy Peralta took the mound knowing what was
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: at stake. You could see it in his face during warm-ups.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: This guy had already won a game in this series,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and he came out tonight with 84 pitches over five
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and a third innings that were just pure fight. Five hits,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: one run, three walks. Not as sharp as stuff by
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: any stretch, but he didn't need to be sharp. He
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: needed to be Freddie. And Freddie showed up when he
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: left after that sixth inning. The Rays were up 3-1,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and he had done his job. That's all you ask
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: from your starter in October. The early offense came in waves,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and I want to give credit where it's due.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Second inning.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Richie Palacios lines a double to right field that scores
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: two runs and sets the tone. Chandler Simpson and Victor
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Mesa Jr. just cruising around the bases like they had
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: all day. Then in the third, Johnny DeLuca does what
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Johnny DeLuca does, sacrifice fly to left.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Simple, effective, 3-0.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: The Rays built a lead and made Cleveland play catch-up,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: which is exactly where you want a team like this
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to be. Now here's where I'll be honest with you.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: There was a stretch in that third inning where the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Rays loaded the bases with nobody out and only got
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: one run.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: One run.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: You look at that and you think, what if we
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: push it to five early? What if we blow the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: doors off before Cleveland's bullpen even gets warm? But October
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. You get what you get, and
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: 3-0 is 3-0. Cleveland did what Cleveland does.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: They clawed.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Nathaniel Lowe found a gap in the sixth and scored
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Chase DeLaura to make it 3-1. And then in the eighth,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: they loaded the bases with two outs. Two runs scored
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on a walk and a hit by pitch. And suddenly
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: it's 5-3 and the go-ahead run is standing on first base.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I will not pretend my stomach wasn't in a knot.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: You watch that inning and you think this is how
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: it ends. This is the moment where the season slips away.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And then Kevin Kelly struck out Brian Rocchio and the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: bases stayed loaded.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: And nobody scored after that. And the inning was over.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: And I think half the stadium forgot to exhale for
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: about 10 seconds. But the real exclamation point came before
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that scare, and it came from a young man who
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: has been building toward this moment all season. Junior Caminero,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: seventh inning, two outs. The score is 3-1. And Caminero
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: sends a two-run shot off the left field foul pole
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: against Cade Smith, the all-star closer who nobody hits home
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: runs off.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Nobody.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Caminero became the first player to do it, and he
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: did it on a splitter, which is just absurd. His
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: trot around the bases lasted 38.7 seconds. The longest in
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: postseason history during the StatCast era.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: 38 seconds. He was savoring it. We were all savoring it.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: First career postseason home run, and it came when the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Rays needed a cushion against one of the best closers
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in baseball. 42 home runs in the regular season, and
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: it all funneled into that one swing. The bullpen behind
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Peralta did its job, too. Cambuza shut the door after
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Lowe's single. Brian Baker came in for the ninth and
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: retired three straight, ending it with a foul out from
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Deloder and the stadium just erupted. Not the polite applause
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: of a regular season win, the kind of eruption you
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: hear when something real is happening. Let me put this
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in context for anyone who needs it. This is the
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: third World Series trip in franchise history. The franchise started
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: in 1998, 29 years of building and rebuilding and trading
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and developing and watching other teams hoist trophies while.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: We watch from the outside. And now it's happening again.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: And this time we've got a first time champion guarantee
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: because the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Dodgers in the NLCS
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and the Brewers have never won either. Both teams are
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: chasing history. Both teams are hungry in a way that
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: only teams who've been close for decades can be. The
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Rays lost game one of this series.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: You remember that. You felt that.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And then they won five of six, including three straight
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: to close it out. That's not luck. That's a team
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that knows who it is and refuses to let one
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: bad night define the whole story. What I love about
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: this franchise is that we've never been the biggest budget
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: or the flashiest roster. We've always been the team that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: figures it out, and tonight, the figuring out paid off
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: in the form of a sacrifice fly from DeLuca, a
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: double from Palacios, and two home runs that will live
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: in memory for.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: A long time.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: The World Series starts Friday, October 23rd. Milwaukee is coming
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to town, or we're going to them. Either way, it's happening.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: The Rays are in the World Series for the first
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: time since 2020, and this feels different. This feels like
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a team that's ready. I'm Mike Michelson, and I'll see
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: you in the World Series.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Go Rays.