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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Nathaniel Lowe snapped an eighth-inning tie with a two-run single after Chase DeLauter and Patrick Bailey homered off Drew Rasmussen, and the Guardians rallied past the Rays 7-3 in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night. 

Junior Caminero and Jonny DeLuca had RBI singles in the first and Cedric Mullins hit a solo homer for the Rays, who never trailed in a three-game sweep of the Yankees in their AL Division Series. 

“It’s been a while since we lost, so I think that’s a good thing, and I know the guys will come back and respond tomorrow,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. 

Game 2 is Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. Rookie left-hander Parker Messick starts for Cleveland, and right-hander Freddy Peralta takes the mound for the Rays. 

Five relievers combined for five innings of one-run, two-hit ball for the Guardians, who became only the 11th team to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series with a victory over the White Sox on Saturday night. 

Cade Smith, who pitched in all five games against Chicago, tossed a perfect ninth. 

“Obviously we came off an emotional series, had a quick turnaround. But these guys come ready to play every day. Couldn’t be more proud of them,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “We got punched early. And our pitching staff, credit to them, for stopping it and keeping us in the game as long as they did. And the offense came alive.” 

Rasmussen took a 2-0 lead into the sixth before DeLauter led off with an opposite-field homer to left-center. Bailey started the seventh with a towering shot to center that went a projected 436 feet, ending Rasmussen’s night. 

Rasmussen took a no-hitter into the eighth in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees. 

José Ramírez opened the eighth with an infield single off Tyler Wells, and DeLauter ripped a double to right. After Wells retired Jo Adell on a grounder to second, Ian Seymour entered. Lowe lined an 0-2 pitch up the middle to drive in two, giving Cleveland a 4-2 lead. 

Mullins connected off Erik Sabrowski for a solo shot in the bottom half. 

Ramírez, whose two-run homer lifted Cleveland to a 2-0 win in Game 5 versus Chicago, provided an insurance run with an RBI single in the ninth off Cole Sulser. Ramírez helped the Guardians get two more by breaking for third with two outs and two strikes on Adell. Caminero ran to cover the bag and was out of position when Adell hit a sharp grounder toward third. The ball rolled into left field for a two-run double. 

A crowd of 35,361 fans waved yellow rally towels and rang cowbells at Tropicana Field in the Rays’ third appearance in the ALCS in the franchise’s 29 season-history. 

They were fired up when the 98-win Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the first and Rasmussen battled to keep it there until the sixth. 

Coming off that dominant performance against the Yankees, Rasmussen went six-plus tough innings, allowing a hit to the second batter he faced and eight total, striking out seven. 

Guardians starter Foster Griffin allowed two runs and five hits in four innings. 

MILWAUKEE — If you can't appreciate William Contreras and everything he brings to the Milwaukee Brewers, you might be a Los Angeles Dodgers fan.

His savvy behind the plate. His timely hitting. And his long, slow trots around the bases that give his teammates the opportunity to jump on and enjoy his ride.

"He's underrated. Whatever people think about him, he's underrated," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of his catcher. "He's that good."

The Brewers have put the Los Angeles Dodgers – the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers – in an 0-2 hole in their best-of-seven National League Championship Series, and Contreras is a large part of the reason why. He's been the conductor for a pitching staff that's allowed four runs and 10 hits in the first two games, and he had a solo homer and drove in the go-ahead run in a 7-4 win in Game 2 on Tuesday, Oct. 12.

He is hitting .391 this postseason, with three homers and four RBIs. The three homers give him five for his postseason career, tying him with Jackson Chourio for Milwaukee's franchise record.

"I think it's the confidence that Milwaukee instilled in me from day one when they acquired me. Going out there and letting me play the game that I do and letting me play the way that I do," said Contreras, who spent the first eight seasons of his career in the Atlanta Braves organization before being traded to the Brewers in December 2022.

"(I'm) just very appreciative to the organization for what they've been able to do," he added. "I think I've been able to have the best years of my career here."

MILWAUKEE – Andrew Friedman, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations, scurried down the staircase Sunday night with several of his staff members as blaring chants from the crowd in the American Family Field concourse pierced his ears.

Let’s Go Brewers.

Let’s. Go. Brewers.

LET’S! GO! BREWERS!

Friedman descended into the Dodgers' clubhouse after the Milwaukee Brewers' 7-4 victory where there was nothing but dead silence.

The Dodgers, the two-time defending World Series champions, are on the ropes.

They boarded the team bus at 8:20 p.m. local time for the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport for a return flight to Los Angeles, trying to make sense of what just happened.

The Dodgers certainly weren’t taking the Brewers for granted, not after winning 103 games this season, but they never imagined that their high-powered offense would be suffocated like this, trailing the Brewers 2 games to 0, with their dynasty on the brink.

“It’s hard to win,’’ Dodgers future Hall of Fame shortstop Mookie Betts said, “when you get only three hits.’’

“It’s tough to hit,’’ Dodgers future Hall of Fame first baseman Freddie Freeman said, “when their bullpen is throwing 100 mph with different arm angles.’’

“It’s just tough to beat those guys,’’ Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “They play hard. They never give up. You know, they play clean baseball. That’s the thing, we’ve got to play a better game.’’

The Dodgers spent $163 million on the back end of their bullpen the past two years. The Milwaukee Brewers did not.

So two games into the National League Championship Series, guess which team’s relief corps has been lights out and which one has been lit up? (Spoiler alert: it’s not the team with all the money.)

Milwaukee sent a parade of four relievers to the mound for a second straight game Monday, and for a second straight game they didn’t give up a run, retiring the last 15 Dodgers in order in a 7-4 win that gives Milwaukee a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which moves to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Wednesday.

The Brewers’ bullpen has pitched 9 2/3 innings in the series, yielding just two hits — both off Abner Uribe — and three walks. That’s it. Both wins have gone to relievers, DL Hall in the opener and JoJo Romero in Game 2.

Read more:Plaschke: Dodgers' three-peat dreams are on life support as the deflated heroes return home

Dodger relievers, meanwhile, have pitched 9 1/3 innings in the two games, giving up four runs on nine hits. Reliever Brock Stewart took the loss Monday.

In a series that’s rapidly shaping up as a battle of the bullpens, the Dodgers clearly aren’t getting what they paid for.

“I don’t have an answer,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shrugged when asked why the Dodgers relievers have struggled while the Brewers have shined. “I know that they’ve got good arms; so do we. I think they’re just finding ways to win pitches better than we are.”

Slugger Max Muncy has a theory on the same question.

“They’re really good,” he said.

The Brewers’ 48 bullpen wins was the most in baseball during the regular season and its 3.40 ERA was best in the National League. And it has been even better in the postseason, giving up just one earned run in 28 2/3 innings against the Dodgers and San Diego Padres. In the divisional era (since 1969), only the 1991 Minnesota Twins have a lower bullpen ERA through six playoff games and with a reliever earning the victory in all five of Milwaukee’s postseason wins, the Brewers have done something only the 2014 Kansas City Royals had done previously.

“There’s a reason they’re where they’re at right now and the bullpen’s a big piece of that,” Muncy said. “If there is a positive, you can say that a lot of our guys are starting to get looks at their back-end guys. But when they’re as good as they are, I don’t know how much that helps.

“They’re all throwing 100 [mph] plus and they all have really nasty stuff.”

Especially Aaron Ashby, who has pitched in both games, holding the Dodgers to a walk in 3 2/3 innings, striking out three. He’s the Brewers’ best-paid reliever, earning $5.5 million this season.

The Dodgers have three relievers making at least twice that — and one of them, Blake Treinen, didn’t even make the postseason roster. One of the others, Tanner Scott, gave up twice as many runs in his first postseason appearance as the Brewers’ bullpen has given up this month.

“They attack the hitters,” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández said of Milwaukee’s relievers. “They throw strikes. They got good stuff. They throw hard. We’ve just got to do a better job.”

Hernández then echoed Muncy in pointing out the Dodgers have now seen six of Milwaukee’s nine relievers, with Ashby and Uribe throwing in both games. And while the Dodgers haven’t done anything against them yet, that familiarity could help going forward.

“We know what we’re going to get,” Hernández said.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy conceded the point — sort of.

“Familiarity, as the numbers tell us, does provide an edge,” he said. “So what we try to do is make sure they don’t face the same guys the next time they pitch if they’re one-inning guys.

Read more:Dodgers will consider sitting Shohei Ohtani after offense struggles in Game 2 NLCS loss

“Can’t always do that.”

Sometimes you can, though. Uribe, who has appeared in all six Brewers games this postseason, has already faced eight Dodger hitters in the series, but only one of them, Andy Pages, twice. And when he does face someone a second time, Murphy said with a smile, who’s to say he’ll him pitch the same way?

“Uribe might have something up his sleeve based on how those other times went,” he said. “Like, well, I never gave him this.’”

That would count as a surprise. However the dominant performance of the Brewers’ bargain-basement bullpen would not. Because even in baseball, the Dodgers are finding out, there are some things money can’t buy.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

This time, Jose Ramírez didn’t hit a majestic home run to decide the game. An innocent infield dribbler was enough to light an eighth-inning fuse that sent the Cleveland Guardians to a startling 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

Nathaniel Lowe’s line-drive single up the middle drove in Ramírez and Chase DeLauter with the go-ahead runs in the top of the eighth and the Guardians struck for seven runs over the final four innings of the game to stun the Rays, who took a 2-0 lead into the sixth.

Yet from there, DeLauter and Ramírez - who each had three hits - and Cleveland’s pitching staff took over.

DeLauter hit an opposite-field homer to cut the Guardians’ deficit in half and then doubled in the eighth for his third hit, the rookie setting the stage for Lowe’s heroics.

In the ninth, Ramírez tacked on an RBI single off reliever Cole Sulser and Joe Adell rapped a two-out, two-run double for the Guardians' final runs. 

That decisive eighth inning began with right-hander Tyler Wells on the mound and he induced a soft grounder from Ramírez. But it bunny-hopped along the Tropicana Field turf long enough for Ramírez to scamper to first base.

After DeLauter’s double and a groundout, Wells was lifted for lefty Ian Seymour. But Lowe, who was drafted by the Rays and spent the first two years of his career in Tampa Bay, sent a fastball right back up the middle to plate the go-ahead runs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are facing a 0-2 deficit in the NLCS and could do the unthinkable.

According to Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo of The Athletic, manager Dave Roberts is considering benching Shohei Ohtani, who is in the midst of an egregious slump.

“Yeah I mean obviously it hasn’t been good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic. “He doesn’t feel great. I think for me, it’s having a conversation with him tomorrow, kind of try to figure out what’s best for him, what’s best for us. He certainly has earned that conversation and deserves it.”

Rosenthal and Woo went on to report that Roberts said he would go ahead and have a conversation “with him tomorrow.”

This time last year, Ohtani had one of the greatest games in baseball history, when he struck out 10 batters and hit three home runs in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Brewers.

But given his performance this postseason, it might be the right thing to do.

Through seven games in the playoffs, Ohtani is 3-for-20 and hasn’t had an extra-base hit.

In Monday night’s 7-4 loss, Ohtani lowered his postseason batting average to .150 after going 0-for-4 at the plate and striking out twice.

On top of that, the four-time MVP was recently dropped to fifth in the lineup and attempted to lay down a bunt to lead off the sixth inning against Brewers left-handed pitcher Jojo Romero.

He’s spent a majority of the season dealing playing hurt, including a bicep and knee injury that he suffered at the midway point of the year.

Prior to his postseason slump, his struggles date back to the regular season, as he has not hit a home run since August 18.

Between August 19. and September 7. Ohtani had not driven in a single run for the Dodgers and landed on the team’s injured list a few days later.

He was reactivated two weeks later and hit an RBI in his second game back, but still didn’t look like himself.

Rosenthal and Woo wrote that if the Dodgers elect to sit Ohtani, rookie Josue De Paula would be the top candidate to take his spot as the designated hitter in the starting lineup.

The two reported that the Dodgers have been impressed with De Paula’s “elite plate discipline.”

It’s unknown what the outcome of Game 2 of the NLCS would have been if Will Smith had utilized two ABS challenge opportunities against the Milwaukee Brewers.

But the fact of the matter is, he didn’t, and now Los Angeles is facing a 2-0 deficit in the NLCS following a 7-4 loss on Monday night.

Smith had two missed ABS challenges against Brice Turang in the first and third innings, costing the Dodgers a chance change the game.

The first missed opportunity happened after starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was about to pick up his second strikeout of the game when he worked Brice Turang to an early 0-2 count.

Yamamoto threw a 91.2 splitter to the bottom corner of the strike zone and it was ruled a ball.

Smith had a chance to ABS challenge the pitch but ultimately decided to check with the third-plate umpire if Turang’s bat crossed the plate.

The umpire ruled that his bat didn’t, keeping his at-bat alive.

“Will’s got a great view of that; you try to defer to your catchers for challenges,” Roberts said. “If you look back, that changes the outing.”

Three pitches later, after the botched attempt, Turang reached base on a double, then was brought home in the next at-bat, following an RBI single by William Contreras.

Yamamoto eventually got out of the inning after the missed challenge opportunity from Smith by getting Jake Bauers and Christian Yelich to hit out.

Smith’s second chance to get Turang to strike out came in his second at-bat, when he was facing a full count.

After Yamamoto threw a cutter in the middle-outside part of the zone, the pitch was ruled a ball, and Smith had a chance to challenge the call but elected not to.

Smith said during postgame that he went and looked at the two missed opportunities.

“It was kind of early in the game, we kind of had him on the ropes,” Smith said. “I figured we could get him out there. The walk one was a bummer. But it happens. It’s baseball.”

After Turang was walked, the Brewers offense exploded in the third inning, after Christian Yelich drove in two runs, sending Yamamoto to the showers early after he threw 75 pitches in 2 ⅔ innings.

When the game was over, the Dodgers remained with their two ABS challenges at their disposal.

Aside from the struggles on defense, Smith is 1-for-23 in the playoffs with one walk and eight strikeouts.