Guardians Rally Late to Deny Rays Wild-Card Clinch

The champagne and beer were already wheeled into Tampa Bay's clubhouse before the first pitch Thursday night. The furniture had been cleared, plastic strips hung from the ceiling—all the staging for a celebration that never came. The Rays needed one win to clinch a wild-card spot for the fourth straight year. They had the chance. They couldn't hold it.

Cleveland's rookies Oscar Gonzalez and Steven Kwan drove in runs in the eighth inning to flip a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 victory, denying Tampa Bay the postseason berth they'd been chasing. It was the kind of late-inning reversal that has defined the Guardians' season—a team that doesn't stay down, that finds ways to win when it matters. Cal Quantrill, Cleveland's starter, put it plainly after the game: "You can't put us away. I don't think we're a very fun team to face." He would know. He remained unbeaten at Progressive Field in 33 starts, allowing just one run and three hits across six innings before his teammates rescued him from what looked like a loss.

The Guardians had been shut out through seven innings. Will Brennan, a rookie pinch hitter, broke through with a single off Shawn Armstrong in the eighth. Myles Straw sacrificed him to second. Steven Kwan doubled to tie the game at one. Then the Rays walked José Ramírez intentionally—he's been walked more than any other hitter in baseball this season, 20 times, an MLB record—to face Gonzalez. The rookie swung at a pitch that nearly hit him and sent a slow roller to the right side, just beyond first baseman Ji-Man Choi's reach. Brennan scored. Cleveland led 2-1.

Tampa Bay got one more chance in the ninth. Reliever Trevor Stephan walked three straight batters to load the bases, but he struck out Choi and got Paredes to fly out to short right for his third save. The Rays packed their gear and headed to Houston still needing one more win to make the postseason. The coolers of champagne and beer rolled back out of the clubhouse, untouched.

Rays manager Kevin Cash acknowledged the sting without dwelling on it. "There's disappointment any time we lose," he said. "The disappointment is we were up in the eighth inning and we lost." He felt for Armstrong, who had pitched well. "He threw the ball so well and Gonzalez swings at a pitch that almost hit him and just found that perfect spot."

For Cleveland, it was another entry in a season-long pattern. The Guardians have 37 come-from-behind wins. They've won 29 games in their final at-bat. Since September 4, they're 20-4. They took two of three games in this series against Tampa Bay—two of those three went to extra innings, all three decided by a single run. Quantrill saw it as proof of something larger than one game. "It comes back to proving that we can continue to play the game the way we want to play it," he said. "We don't want people celebrating in our house, right?"

The Central champions head into the final week of the regular season against Kansas City. The Rays, still alive but no longer in control of their own fate, face Houston needing to keep winning. One team proved Thursday night that late-inning collapses are not in their nature. The other learned that even when you've prepared the celebration, nothing is guaranteed until the final out.