Rays beat Guardians 7-3 to even ALCS at 2-2

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 at Progressive Field on Saturday night to even the American League Championship Series at two games apiece, according to Major League Baseball’s official results.

Jonathan Aranda’s single led to two runs in the seventh inning when the ball got past right fielder Chase DeLauter, and Nick Martinez pitched 5 1/3 innings for his first post-season win, The Associated Press reported. ESPN also reported the Rays capitalized on Cleveland’s errors.

The ALCS drew strong search interest in Canada on Saturday night, according to Google Trends.

Game 4 had been pushed back a day when rain postponed Friday’s scheduled game. Because of the postponement there is no off day for travel: Game 5 is Sunday in Cleveland before the series shifts to St. Petersburg, Fla., on Monday, the AP said.

DeLauter put Cleveland ahead 1-0 with an RBI single in the first inning. Aranda tied it with a run-scoring single in the third, and Junior Caminero’s double to the left-field wall off Daniel Espino gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead in the sixth, according to MLB’s play-by-play.

The Rays broke it open in the seventh. Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls reached on hits and moved up on a double steal, and Aranda’s line drive past a diving Travis Bazzana scored Palacios before Walls came around when the ball went under DeLauter’s glove, the AP reported. Aranda went to third and scored on Chandler Simpson’s sacrifice fly.

Bazzana homered in the bottom of the seventh, his first post-season home run, and Brayan Rocchio added an RBI single to cut the lead to 5-3. Yandy Díaz answered with a two-run homer in the ninth off Matt Festa.

The top four hitters in the Rays’ order, Díaz, Aranda, Simpson and Caminero, combined for six of Tampa Bay’s 11 hits and drove in six runs after going 7 for 41 with three RBIs in the first three games, the AP said. Aranda had three hits after starting the series 0 for 10. Martinez allowed one run on two hits on a 46-degree Fahrenheit night, walking two and striking out three. Espino took the loss.

The winner will face the Milwaukee Brewers, who swept the Los Angeles Dodgers to reach their first World Series since 1982.

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Sources: MLB official results and play-by-play; The Associated Press via the Boston Globe; ESPN; Google Trends Canada.