Rays await Guardians or White Sox in ALCS after sweeping Yankees; Game 1 Monday at Tropicana Field

The Tampa Bay Rays will open the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field on Monday, Oct. 12, and they will learn their opponent on Saturday night. The Cleveland Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 9-5 on Thursday, Oct. 8, to force a decisive Game 5 of their AL Division Series at Progressive Field, and the winner advances to face the Rays.

Tampa Bay reached its first ALCS since 2020 by sweeping the New York Yankees, finishing the series with a 4-3 win in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, Oct. 7. Victor Mesa Jr. hit a tiebreaking two-run homer off Yankees left-hander Max Fried in the sixth inning, and the Rays survived a dramatic fan interference ruling in the bottom half to close it out.

The Rays finished the regular season 98-64, first in the AL East and the best record in the American League, which gives them home-field advantage in the best-of-seven series. Games 1 and 2 are in St. Petersburg, with first pitch scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern both nights on TBS.

How the Rays finished off the Yankees

Ryan Vilade put Tampa Bay on the board with a solo homer off Fried in the fourth inning, the first postseason home run of his career, according to MLB.com. Mesa followed in the sixth with a two-run drive to right-center that broke a tie.

The Yankees nearly answered right away. In the bottom of the sixth, Anthony Volpe drove a ball toward the left-field wall that would have been a game-tying two-run homer, but a fan reached over the wall and caught it above the glove of the leaping Mesa. After a replay review, umpires ruled spectator interference. MLB said the ball would not have left the playing field nor would it have been caught, so Volpe was awarded a double and the runner from first was allowed to score. The Yankees pulled within 4-3 but did not score again.

Starter Nick Martinez allowed two runs while getting 11 outs. Ian Seymour recorded four outs, Griffin Jax pitched two innings, and Cam Booser, Kevin Kelly and closer Bryan Baker handled the eighth and ninth. Baker earned his third save of the series.

"Let's continue what we're doing," manager Kevin Cash said, according to MLB.com.

A sweep for the franchise record book

The series was dominated by Tampa Bay's pitching. In Game 1 at Tropicana Field, right-hander Drew Rasmussen threw eight scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and carried a no-hitter through 7 2/3 innings, and Jonathan Aranda's solo homer accounted for the only run in a 1-0 win. In Game 2, the Rays chased Yankees starter Cam Schlittler, regarded as the favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, after 4 1/3 innings, and New York committed four errors.

It was the first sweep of a best-of-five or longer postseason series in Rays history, according to MLB.com, and only the second time the Yankees have been swept in a best-of-five series, after the 1980 ALCS. Tampa Bay's previous ALDS wins came in 2008 and 2020, and both of those teams went on to the World Series. The 2020 club beat the Houston Astros in a seven-game ALCS before losing the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Erik Neander, the Rays' president of baseball operations, praised the group's makeup after the clincher. "They're a team by every definition," he said.

Back at the Trop

The ALCS will be played at a ballpark the Rays could not use a year ago. Hurricane Milton tore apart Tropicana Field's roof in October 2024, and Tampa Bay played its entire 2025 home schedule at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' spring training park in Tampa, going 41-40 there. The team announced in November 2025 that it would return to a repaired and updated Tropicana Field for 2026.

The return has gone well. The Rays posted a .679 home winning percentage this season, tied with Milwaukee for the best in the majors, according to MLB.com. ALDS Game 1 drew 40,542 fans, the largest crowd at the Trop since 2010, and Cash called it the best crowd noise he had ever witnessed in any ballpark.

Tickets for all potential ALCS and World Series home games are on sale through the Rays' official postseason ticket page on MLB.com. Resale listings for Game 1 were running well above $100 this week, and some marketplaces showed limited inventory remaining.

Lining up the rotation

Because the Rays swept the Yankees, Rasmussen did not have to pitch again in the Division Series and is lined up to start ALCS Game 1, according to MLB.com. He went 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA over 30 regular-season starts, striking out 174 in 172 innings.

Cash has not announced his plans beyond Game 1. The Rays' starting group also includes Freddy Peralta, Martinez, Jax and Seymour, and the sweep left the bullpen rested, with Baker, Seymour and Jax all available in high-leverage roles. Tampa Bay's offense, which had the lowest strikeout and swing-and-miss rates in the majors during the season, has also shown it can win with power: two of its three ALDS wins included decisive home runs.

Guardians or White Sox?

Cleveland trailed the White Sox 2-0 in their series before winning Games 3 and 4. In Thursday's Game 4 in Chicago, José Ramírez homered in the fifth inning off a 99.9 mph sinker from Jordan Hicks for a 3-2 lead and finished 2 for 5 with three RBIs. After Chicago went back ahead 4-3, the Guardians sent 10 batters to the plate in a six-run sixth inning, including three straight bases-loaded singles.

Game 5 is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, Oct. 10, in Cleveland. Right-hander Gavin Williams is expected to start for the Guardians even though he made the first relief appearance of his career in Game 4, and right-hander Sean Burke is the White Sox's expected starter. Burke went 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA in three regular-season appearances against Cleveland.

The Rays had the upper hand against both possible opponents during the regular season. Tampa Bay went 5-1 against Cleveland, sweeping a three-game series at Tropicana Field July 24 to 26 and winning two of three at Progressive Field in April. The only loss came April 29, when Williams outpitched Rasmussen. Against the White Sox, the Rays went 4-2, according to league standings.

What's next

The ALCS schedule, with all times Eastern and every game on TBS, truTV and HBO Max:

Games marked with an asterisk are played only if necessary, and the Game 4 start could move to 8 p.m. if the National League Championship Series ends in a sweep. The Rays will be watching Saturday's Game 5 from home, with Rasmussen set to take the ball at the Trop on Monday night.