CLEVELAND — Manager Kevin Cash and the Rays have been saying for weeks that they like the new postseason format Major League Baseball adopted this year because it doesn’t force the wild-card teams into a one-game showdown after a six-month, season-long battle.
But the Rays put themselves in that position after losing Friday’s opener of the best-of-three American League wild-card series to the Guardians, 2-1.
First pitch Saturday will be, again, 12:07 p.m. as the Rays must win to extend their season to a third game on Sunday.
Tyler Glasnow, in his third outing since returning from Tommy John surgery, will start for the Rays against Cleveland’s Triston McKenzie.
The Rays didn’t do much wrong during Friday’s chilly afternoon, they just didn’t do enough right.
Shane McClanahan gave them seven strong innings, allowing a two-run homer to Cleveland’s best hitter, Jose Ramirez, in the sixth. They just didn’t provide much support, rapping only three hits against starter Shane Bieber, who worked into the eighth, and the Cleveland pen, including Jose Siri’s sixth-inning homer.
The Rays’ ability to mount much of an offensive challenge against Cleveland’s pitching was one of the big questions entering the series, and the opening game didn’t do much to dispel that.
They were held hitless by Bieber until Harold Ramirez led off the fifth with a single and shut out until Siri homered with one out in the sixth.
McClahanan looked like the first-half All-Star in delivering a strong start, scattering four hits while taking a shutout into the sixth. But he allowed a one-out single to Amed Rosario, then made his one big mistake, leaving a 1-1 change-up where Ramirez could drive it, and he hit a two-run homer to center.
