Tampa Bay Rays win game two over Guardians thanks to terrible error from José Ramírez, even ALCS at 1-1

The American League Championship Series has pitted two of the most unlikely franchises against each other, with a trip to the World Series on the line.

The Tampa Bay Rays entered the 2026 season with one of the three lowest payrolls in baseball, as they usually do. They made few big additions, preferring to trust their farm system, player development staff, and the ability to mix and match players in specific situations.

Meanwhile, the Cleveland Guardians found a way to reduce spending even further, running the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball, in order to maximize profits for team ownership. Fast-forward to October, and the Rays and Guardians are the two AL teams, not the Yankees or Red Sox. Not the Astros and Rangers from big markets in Texas. Or the Blue Jays, with their top-5 payroll, or even Detroit, where the Tigers ran the 11th highest payroll in baseball and by far the highest in the AL Central.

As surprising as it comes, if you haven't watched baseball before. But maybe even more surprising? How game one of the ALCS between these two teams played out.

Cleveland, hardly known as an offensive powerhouse, fell behind 2-0 against one of the best run prevention teams in baseball. Then, starting in the sixth inning, they started scoring and never stopped. Home runs from Chase DeLauter and light-hitting catcher Patrick Bailey tied it, and a parade of hits led to a 4-3 lead in the eighth, which they promptly expanded to 7-3 by the ninth.

The team that finished 24th in the league in runs scored, exploding for seven runs in game one of the ALCS against one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. If that doesn't demonstrate the randomness of postseason baseball, it's hard to know what does.

That set up what amounts to a must-win situation for the favored Tampa Bay Rays in game two, who sent midseason trade addition Freddy Peralta, acquired from the lowly New York Mets, to the mound hoping to even the series. Cleveland countered with Parker Messick, coming off an outstanding season of his own. But on Tuesday, Peralta, despite his struggles in New York, was electric.

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Six shutout innings, with six strikeouts and just four hits allowed, with an average fastball velocity over 2.5 mph higher than his season average. And he got a little help from his defense too, as star third baseman Junior Caminero made a nice play on a liner to his left, and hit the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag afterward.

Just as you'd expect from the Tampa pitching lab, Peralta's start lowered his ERA to just 0.81 over his last eight starts in a Rays uniform. Somehow, they do it every single time.

On offense, the Rays' lineup got to Messick in the fourth thanks to some shaky Cleveland defense. After Victor Mesa Jr. beat out an infield single, overturned on review, Jonny DeLuca struck out and Ben Williamson hit what seemed to be a routine grounder to third. But it took a funny hop and got through Guardians third baseman José Ramírez, scoring Mesa from third. Then Liam Hicks made it really hurt,