Rays beat Guardians 7-3 in ALCS Game 6 to book World Series showdown with Brewers

ST. PETERSBURG — The Tampa Bay Rays are heading to the World Series for the third time in franchise history after a 7-3 win over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, taking the best-of-seven series 4-2, CNN reported.

Tampa Bay struck early at Tropicana Field: second baseman Richie Palacios laced a double into the right-centre gap to score Victor Mesa Jr. and Chandler Simpson, and Jonny DeLuca’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0. Cleveland pulled one back in the sixth on Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single.

The decisive blow came in the seventh, when Junior Caminero — who hit 42 home runs in the regular season — turned on a first-pitch split-fingered fastball and pulled it off the foul pole for a two-run homer after Liam Hicks walked, stretching the lead to 5-1. The Guardians threatened in the eighth, loading the bases and forcing in two runs when Ian Seymour walked Travis Bazzana, walked Patrick Bailey and hit Angel Martinez with a pitch, but Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to end the rally. Yandy Díaz then sealed it with a two-run homer off Hunter Gaddis in the bottom of the eighth.

The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, in a World Series starting Friday at 8 p.m. ET at American Family Field. It pits the two best regular-season teams against each other, and guarantees a first-time champion: the Rays lost in 2008 to the Phillies and in 2020 to the Dodgers, while the Brewers last reached the Fall Classic in 1982.