Rays Rally Past Cleveland: Three Straight Wins, an ALCS in Six, and a Title-Starved World Series With Milwaukee Starts Friday

By Hank Dalton, RF Sports Radio MLB Playoffs voice

Baseball fans, the bracket is done and the Fall Classic is set. Down 2-1 in the ALCS, Tampa Bay won three straight and now gets Milwaukee in a World Series where somebody wins a first championship.

The facts

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 on Monday, Oct. 19, in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field to win the series 4-2, per Baseball-Reference and the AP. Junior Caminero hit a two-run homer off Guardians closer Cade Smith in the seventh inning for a 5-1 lead, and Yandy Diaz added a two-run shot in the eighth. Freddy Peralta allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings and earned the win. Attendance was 40,230.

Cleveland went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base, per ESPN. Its best chance came in the eighth, when it loaded the bases with two outs, and Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio on three pitches. After taking a 2-1 series lead, the Guardians lost 7-3, 3-1 and 7-3 and scored seven runs over those final three games. Their World Series drought is now 78 years, per MLB.com.

Tampa Bay is headed to its first World Series in a full season since 2008, per ESPN, and faces a Milwaukee Brewers team that swept the Dodgers for its first pennant since 1982. Neither franchise has won a World Series. Game 1 is Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. Eastern / 7 p.m. Central on FOX at American Family Field in Milwaukee, per MLB.com. There is no Texas Rangers angle in this one.

RF Sports Radio's take (opinion)

My take: last week I picked Cleveland to close it out. I was wrong, and I was wrong because I trusted the Guardians' bats to find one more big swing. They never did. Seven runs in three elimination-pressure games will not get it done against a Rays staff that throws strikes and changes looks. Peralta was not perfect, but he got the double play when it mattered. That is October pitching.

This World Series is a gift for neutral fans. Two teams without a title, two clubs built more on development than on payroll, and two fan bases that have waited a long time. Milwaukee has the rest edge after the sweep. Tampa Bay has the momentum and a lineup that just found its power at the right time with Caminero and Diaz.

My call: Brewers in six. The rest and home field to open the series matter, and Milwaukee's bullpen has looked like the steadiest unit I have watched this October. That is a prediction, not a report. If the Rays steal Game 1, I would flip it.

What to watch next

Game 1 is Friday at 7 p.m. Central on FOX. Watch the probable pitchers announcement and whether Milwaukee's rest turns into rust. For the column on the Brewers' NLCS sweep, read Hank's Oct. 16 column on the Brewers sweeping the Dodgers, and follow the MLB Playoffs page through the final out.

Radio question: with neither team ever winning a World Series, who are you pulling for — the Brewers or the Rays — and how many games does it go?

Sources: ESPN — ALCS Game 6 takeaways as Rays advance; Baseball-Reference — ALCS Game 6 box score, Oct. 19, 2026; MLB.com — Guardians' run ends two wins shy of the World Series; MLB.com — Rays-Brewers World Series Game 1 FAQ; AP News — Diaz, Caminero and Peralta lead Rays to the World Series.