00:00The Guardians have just stolen the momentum inside of Cleveland.
00:03Game one winners over the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
00:08Cave Smith shuts it down 1-2-3 in the ninth,
00:12and the Guardians are now in the lead one game to nothing
00:16after a 7-3 victory in a game, by the way, they trailed 2-0.
00:22So you are now in the driver's seat in a game in Tampa Bay,
00:26and with this game over, I believe we have our co-host ready.
00:32Dom, is that correct? We do.
00:34Let's go ahead and welcome in our co-host for this Guardians postgame.
00:37It's our good friend, our Cleveland Sportsbeat reporter, Daryl Ryder,
00:40always brought to you courtesy of Scheiben Jewelers,
00:43Cleveland's premier jewelry store.
00:45Daryl, Guardians lead the series now 1-0 after,
00:49I think if you look at it on paper, an improbable game one win over the race.
00:53Yeah, didn't start all that well for the Guardians,
00:56slow start there in the first inning,
00:59but basically able to hold Tampa Bay down for the majority of the game.
01:05Rays got an eighth-inning home run,
01:08but overall, man, they once again continue to show you
01:13just how resilient of a ball club they are,
01:17and the middle of the lineup just did absolute serious damage tonight
01:21between Jose Ramirez and Chase DeLauter,
01:24and as you said, they're now up in the series one game to none.
01:28If there was a game for them to steal because Tampa Bay is so tough at the trop,
01:33it was this one, and they got the job done tonight.
01:36Daryl, I talk about it being improbable on paper.
01:38The part of that's just because we're looking at it right now,
01:41and I mean, I laid it out a little bit to start the show,
01:44but you have Drew Rasmussen on the mound,
01:46who could very well be the AL Cy Young this year,
01:48and Guardians, because they went five against the White Sox,
01:51were forced to start Foster Griffin at night,
01:53who worked himself into some early trouble,
01:55and you just turn around, and Foster obviously gave up the two runs in the first,
02:00shut it down.
02:01Guardians were hitting all night off Rasmussen,
02:03not being able to put up runs,
02:04and then Chase DeLauter comes through with a solo shot.
02:06They decide for whatever reason to throw him back out
02:10for another batter going into that seventh,
02:12and Patrick Bailey answered the call,
02:14and he's kind of been the unsung hero from the Guardians postseason
02:19where a defensive catcher has turned offensive all of a sudden.
02:22Yeah, and look, it's also two.
02:26It's just not one guy.
02:27I know it'll be easy to sit here and just focus on Jose Ramirez
02:31and the absolute heater that he has been on since game three of the ALDS,
02:37and obviously a big piece and reason why they advanced to the ALCS,
02:42but in that ninth inning, Joe O'Dell with the two-run double
02:49to really just put this thing on ice and finish him off,
02:53but Nathaniel Lowe, a two-run single.
02:58So they're getting contributions from everybody.
03:05They're setting the table.
03:07They're taking advantage of their opportunities
03:09when they're getting guys on base,
03:11and again, this isn't just the Jose Ramirez show,
03:15not by any stretch of the imagination.
03:17Chase DeLauter, again, huge night for him.
03:20Patrick Bailey, Homer to tie the game there in the seventh inning.
03:24So a complete team win, and let's give Foster Griffin some love.
03:30I mean, again, Rockies start there in that first inning,
03:33and it would have been real easy for Steven Vogt to pull the plug early on that
03:37and turn this thing into a bullpen game,
03:39but Griffin's able to get you into the fifth inning
03:43before you have to start going to that bullpen,
03:46which is back to being pretty reliable for the guards,
03:50and so I kind of feel like Foster deserves a little love,
03:53even though it got a little bumpy for him at the outset.
03:56I mean, he absolutely shut things down after that first inning.
03:59He was really good.
04:01Offensively, Daryl, this might be – I understand they scored nine runs
04:04in back-to-back days, just given the picture that you were facing,
04:07the moment that you're in off of one day's rest when the Rays have been sitting around.
04:11I think this might be the most impressive offensive performance the Guardians have put on.
04:16Oh, yeah.
04:17I mean, without a question.
04:20Again, just a very balanced scoring attack for them.
04:23They score seven runs on 14 hits.
04:26They have 14 hits tonight.
04:28I mean, man alive.
04:30I'm sitting there in the early innings, and I'm looking, and the Guardians have six hits but no runs.
04:36The Rays have four hits, and they've got two runs, and I'm sitting there thinking,
04:39this is going to be one of them nights, isn't it?
04:41And then the Bats woke up.
04:43You got the two solo homers, and then they just absolutely poured it on in the late innings.
04:49They get the solo homers in the sixth and seventh inning, and then two spot in the eighth, three in
04:54the ninth,
04:54and good night, everybody.
04:57Guardians take the early 1-0 ALCS lead.
05:01Darrell, I'm sure a lot of the people listening to us are the diehard Guardians fans and understand this,
05:06but this is a bigger moment than I think a lot of people realize,
05:09because traditional playoff series, you'd have two in Tampa, you'd go back to Cleveland for two,
05:14and then you'd play the 1-1-1 to end out the series in each place,
05:18but this is now the Guardians with a 1-0 lead and playing three of the next four games at
05:22home.
05:23Yeah, absolutely, and yeah, it's a 2-3-2 format in this ALCS.
05:30No off days in between these games.
05:31Keep that in mind as well.
05:33The only off days are for travel, so that's very important to note as we look at how this thing
05:40is going to set up.
05:41I was curious to see if, in fact, Stephen Vogt was going to stick with Cade Smith there in the
05:47ninth
05:47after they got that three spot in the top of the ninth to give themselves a four-run cushion.
05:52He, in fact, did go to Cade Smith, a very clean inning for Cade.
05:56No save because they won by four, but that was good.
06:00It was a clean, quick inning for Cade Smith, so he'll be ready to go tomorrow night for Game 2
06:07if needed.
06:08But again, they'll play Game 2 tomorrow night in Tampa, off day Wednesday, travel, get to Cleveland,
06:14and then Games 3, 4, and 5 all here in Cleveland Thursday, Friday, Saturday, off day Sunday,
06:22back to Tampa for Game 6 and 7 if needed next Monday and next Tuesday.
06:30It's going to be a wild ride, obviously, in this series,
06:33and there's going to be a lot of things that we can hit on.
06:35You guys can chime in, 216-474-0092.
06:38We're going to get to plenty of your calls throughout this show as well,
06:40but something felt a little bit different about this game, Daryl.
06:45Obviously, I don't know that anybody would have taken the start of this year and said,
06:49ah, Guardians three games away from a World Series.
06:52Don't worry about that whatsoever.
06:53Of course, they're going to find a way to get three games away from a World Series,
06:58but they find themselves there, and like I said, the offense wakes up.
07:01You point out the 14 hits, and it really does feel like when you get to go on the road,
07:07when you get to take this game with the format we were just talking about,
07:10the Guardians have played momentum decently well throughout the year,
07:13and I know at times it feels like the low of the lows have felt bad,
07:16but when this team has been riding high, they've ridden it,
07:19and it does feel like a game that massively shifts momentum now.
07:22Well, they came in with the momentum.
07:25This is as if the shoe is on the other foot, right?
07:28All the conversation about the Guardians having that time off
07:32while the White Sox had to handle their business in the wild card round, right?
07:37And then the Guardians kind of – well, they didn't kind of.
07:39They did.
07:40They came out rusty.
07:40They came out slow in that division series falling down 0-2,
07:45very minimal offense, just really wasn't existent until game three.
07:50They woke up, and then it just became an avalanche,
07:53and they came into this series with the Rays in which, well, you're right,
07:57momentum on their side, right?
07:59Winners of three straight games to take that series.
08:01Now it's four straight games for them.
08:03Offense has woken up.
08:05You're getting contributions up and down that lineup right now.
08:09The buttons that Steven Vogt pressed early in that Chicago series,
08:14it didn't really work out all that well, but now these last four games,
08:19Steven Vogt's back to Manager of the Year material, right?
08:22You know, you're talking about him in the same breath as Mike Hargrove
08:26and Terry Francona with the success that he has had in his short stint here
08:31as Guardian Manager.
08:32It's only been three years for him, and two of those three years,
08:35they're in the American League Championship Series,
08:37and they've won the division all three years,
08:40had to come back to win the division each of the last two years.
08:43If I remember correctly, I think at one point they were like 56-56,
08:50and they did what they do in August and September.
08:56And, yeah, so it feels like momentum's on their side because, you know,
08:59the Rays got to sit around and watch.
09:01And what was everyone talking about, Jake, going into this series, right?
09:04Oh, the Guardians are going to be just absolutely bushed from that series
09:10with the White Sox, all that emotional energy and physical exertion
09:15to get through that series.
09:16Meanwhile, Tampa Bay's just chilling down there in St. Pete,
09:21and they're doing basically what the Guardians did,
09:23their simulated games and things like that.
09:26So the Rays are just going to be ready to roll.
09:28And, look, they came out of the gate firing, no question about it.
09:31They took that early 2-0 lead, but the Guardians did what they always do.
09:35They hung tough.
09:35They kept it close.
09:37Foster Griffin gave them a shot, turned it over to the bullpen, down two runs.
09:40And then, again, you get the solo homers in the middle innings,
09:44and you get big contributions with big base hits late in the eighth
09:47and ninth inning.
09:48Five runs, by the way, in the last two innings there.
09:52All seven of their runs coming from the sixth inning on.
09:55That's pretty impressive.
09:57There's no doubt.
09:58And, Darrell, this is part of so many people.
10:01It was the Guardians narrative that you're talking about where it's like
10:04the exertion from series one.
10:05And it was also just people look at this like, well, we just watched the Rays
10:08sweep the New York Yankees, who I think a lot of people probably had coming out
10:11of the American League, even without Aaron Judge.
10:14And it felt like, oh, well, the Rays are just that good.
10:16The Guardians are going to walk in here and get waxed.
10:18I was talking about it as soon as we were heading into this series for the last
10:21couple of days.
10:22It's like the Rays will play your brand of baseball.
10:25And I think they showed that today, right?
10:27You're sitting here, and they're the team that kind of looked flat offensively.
10:31They muster seven hits, but it's four three runs.
10:33The long ball doesn't exist.
10:35The Guardians are the team hitting the ball out of the yard.
10:36And we saw really good pitching is great.
10:40That's still not a fantastic bullpen.
10:41And when you get cracks in the armor from your starting pitching that you rely on
10:45so heavily, as we saw from the Guardians comboed with your offense didn't look
10:49great in those first two games in the ALDS, the Rays are a very beatable team.
10:54Yeah, they are.
10:55And guess what?
10:56Oh, by the way, the Guardians have their top two pitchers going the next two games as
11:00well.
11:01So, absolutely.
11:02I mean, you beat tonight the Rays' ace, right?
11:06So, you took him out.
11:08And look, I mean, that was a pretty good effort there by Drew Rasmussen.
11:16But, you know, six innings, you know, plus there, gave up the two runs, no decision.
11:23Eight hits, he struck out seven, okay?
11:26You know, tough no decision for him.
11:29But you beat up that Tampa Bay bullpen.
11:32And so, now you got Rasmussen out of the way.
11:35You've got your top two pitchers ready to go.
11:38Parker Messick tomorrow night.
11:41Gavin Williams in game three Thursday night, or late afternoon Thursday, here in Cleveland.
11:47And you look at this, and this is lining up very, very nice for the Guardians right
11:53now.
11:54I don't want to put the cart before the horse.
11:55It's just one game.
11:56And, you know, it's a great night to feel good if you're a Guardians fan.
12:01You're in the driver's seat right now.
12:03At worst, you're coming home 1-1.
12:06But you've got a tremendous opportunity tomorrow night, Jake, to come home 2-0.
12:09Yeah, I mean, you do have a really good opportunity with Messick going.
12:12Obviously, Freddie Peralta is going to be on the bump for Tampa Bay, and he's been really
12:15good across these playoffs as well.
12:18But it just feels like, yeah, when you get Parker, when you get Gavin, all of a sudden
12:22things start to turn for this team.
12:23And we'll see if they're able to flip the luck.
12:26Obviously, like, they win a game five, but it wasn't off the back of the offense.
12:29It was one-two run homer.
12:30They haven't been able to hit in progressive.
12:32So, like, you feel like that's an advantage.
12:34And, I mean, I would say that's probably – they haven't been great there all year,
12:38but it's not like you're watching this team score two runs all year while they're
12:42at home either.
12:42Like, there is an offensive ability while they're playing at home.
12:45It's just whether or not that shows up.
12:47But, yeah, you go into a game two feeling like, again, this is not the most dangerous
12:51offense on the planet.
12:52We saw Junior Cam and Arrow get a little banged up today with the collision in the
12:55outfield.
12:55And it feels like an offense that – you know, Parker Messick should have a pretty
13:01good shot to have a pretty good day against.
13:03Yeah.
13:04And, look, when you – the Rays played really well against the Guardians this season
13:10during the regular season, really struggled.
13:12I love what Stephen Vogt told the TBS broadcast.
13:15He said, yeah, but that was a different team.
13:17Yeah.
13:17You know, trade deadline came.
13:19We imported some help, and we're a different ball club than we were the last time we saw
13:25these guys, and I think Tampa Bay got a look at that tonight.
13:29Yeah.
13:30Hey, there's no doubt about it.
