CLEVELAND — Saturday’s game ended on a bad pitch.
“Just a mistake,” Corey Kluber said. “Caught too much of the plate. I fell behind, 1-0, and I was trying to get back into the count and didn’t quite execute it as well as I would have liked to. Unfortunately, he kind of did what he was supposed to with it.”
Cleveland’s Oscar Gonzalez hit it over the center-field fence, leading off the 15th for the 1-0 win that ended the Rays’ season.
But most of the other 184 pitches the Rays threw during the nearly five-hour game were pretty darn good, matching Cleveland’s stellar performance.
The Rays used eight pitchers who combined to allow just five hits and three walks on an eventful day.
Tyler Glasnow, making his third start since returning from August 2021 Tommy John surgery, did well, working his allotted five innings in just 63 pitches, allowing two hits. “Glasnow was awesome,” manager Kevin Cash said.
There was some concern in the sixth inning, as Pete Fairbanks, their top high-leverage reliever, lost feeling in his right index and middle fingers, walked two batters, then left the game.
That set the stage for Jason Adam — who, like Fairbanks, was given nine days off to be rested and ready for the series — to deliver what Cash called their “highlight of the day.”
Adam didn’t start that way, hitting his first batter to load the bases, with Cleveland’s dangerous duo of Jose Ramirez and Josh Naylor up next. But Adam struck out Ramirez and got Naylor to hit a grounder that shortstop Wander Franco turned into a double play.
“That was unbelievable,” Cash said. “I would have lost a lot of money if I would have thought we were going to get through that inning with them not scoring a run.”
Said Adam: “Certainly, that was an experience. I lost my mind a little bit.”
Cash next made a controversial decision.
He brought in Drew Rasmussen, who started all year, for the eighth, with the capability to cover three to five innings. But after Rasmussen got five outs, and threw just 16 pitches, Cash took him out.
Twitter critics cited it as another damning decision, like pulling Blake Snell in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series. Cash saw it as the right strategy — “playing matchups” — at a key point in a scoreless game.
It helped his case that it worked. Lefty Garrett Cleavinger struck out the four batters he faced, righty Shawn Armstrong set down four of his five, and lefty Brooks Raley three of five, leading to Kluber taking over with one out and one on in the 13th.
One counterpoint to Cash’s claim, had he left Rasmussen in — and had he also posted zeroes — the Rays might not have had to turn yet to Kluber, who was making his first relief appearance since April 2013 and never came in mid-inning since his big league debut in 2011.
But Kluber, the former Cleveland star, said it was no big deal as he “felt fine” as he got loose, warmed up and was comfortable on the mound.
Cash, who had Jalen Beeks, Javy Guerra and planned Sunday starter Jeffrey Springs left, said he felt bad putting Kluber in an unusual situation.
“Yeah, that stinks,” Cash said. “We’re asking a guy that’s put together a tremendous season for us. Came back, proved to baseball that he’s healthy. Did it at a ballpark that he’s had some great experiences in. Pitched really, really well. Just left a pitch that Gonzalez got.”
