Rays defeat Guardians to level MLB playoff series

Tampa Bay's Yandy Diaz (right) scored a late home run in a series-leveling victory over former club Cleveland in the MLB playoffs (Gregory Shamus)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.

>rcw/sla