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Rays defeat Guardians to level MLB playoff series / Photo: © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Rays defeat Guardians to level MLB playoff series
The Tampa Bay Rays scored a series-leveling 7-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday to reignite their dream of a first World Series crown.
Tampa Bay -- one of only five Major League Baseball teams never to win a World Series title -- squared their best-of-seven American League Championship series at 2-2 with a gutsy victory in Cleveland.
The Rays' former Cleveland slugger Yandy Diaz blasted a two-run home run in the ninth inning to put the seal on a superb performance by Tampa Bay that silenced Progressive field.
The Guardians had been looking to build a commanding 3-1 advantage in Saturday's game four, 24 hours after the fixture had been postponed due to inclement weather in Cleveland.
But in chilly conditions, it was the Rays who dug deep to secure a crucial victory that leaves the series tied with three to play.
Tampa Bay starting pitcher Nick Martinez laid the foundations for the Rays win, restricting Cleveland to one run through five and one third innings.
Martinez had given up an early run in the first inning when Cleveland's Chase DeLauter singled to bring Steven Kwan home for a 1-0 lead.
But thereafter Martinez shut down the Cleveland offense -- retiring 11 batters straight at one stage -- to keep Tampa Bay in the game.
The Rays drew level when Jonathan Aranda singled on a line drive to score Diaz in the third inning before a late onslaught saw Tampa Bay surge into a 5-1 lead.
Junior Caminero doubled on a sharp line drive in the sixth inning to allow Aranda to score and put Tampa Bay 2-1 up.
The decisive passage of play unfolded in the seventh inning, when Tampa Bay got two runners on with no outs after singles from Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls.
A missed checked swing from Diaz allowed Palacios and Walls to advance to second and third base, and when DeLauter misfielded a routine ground ball into right field, both runners came home to put Tampa Bay into a 4-1 lead.
The Rays tacked on a fifth run when a sacrifice fly from Chandler Simpson allowed Aranda to score.
Cleveland staged a mini-rally in the bottom of the inning, when Travis Bazzana crushed a home run into right field before Brayan Rocchio drove in a run for Patrick Bailey to score and make it 5-3.
But Diaz's ninth-inning homer snuffed out the Guardians fightback to leave the series finely balanced ahead of game five in Cleveland on Sunday.
The winner of the series will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series. The Brewers advanced to the Fall Classic after completing a crushing 4-0 defeat of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.
V.J. Coelho--JDB
