Guardians 3, Rays 2: Halpin's Bat Flip Turns Game 3

The sinker leaked. The bat went higher than the ball.

October 15, 2026 - Cleveland - Patrick Bailey chopped a ball off Griffin Jax's glove. Five pitches later, Petey Halpin turned on a 95.9 mph sinker and sent it 385 feet into the right-center bleachers. He shuffled backward to the dirt, watched it land, and threw the bat twenty feet in the air. The Associated Press recap said the bat might have gone higher than the launch angle.

The Cleveland Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in American League Championship Series Game 3 and took a 2-1 lead.

Sunny. 62 degrees. Wind 7 mph, out to center. First pitch 1:10 p.m., moved up five hours on Wednesday because of rain. Attendance 30,101. The game lasted 2 hours, 28 minutes. Cleveland finished with six hits, one homer, and 13 strikeouts from the staff. Tampa Bay finished with three hits, 13 strikeouts of its own, and one swing that mattered.

Tampa Bay won 98 games and swept the Yankees. Thursday was the first time it has trailed 2-1 in three ALCS appearances.

One walk, one double, one run that lasted two innings

Jax opened the first by walking José Ramírez after Steven Kwan took a called third strike. Chase DeLauter grounded into a force. The traffic died.

The second did not. Jo Adell walked after Liam Hicks challenged a pitch result and lost. Nathaniel Lowe lined a double to right. Adell scored. 1-0. Travis Bazzana grounded Lowe to third. Bailey grounded out. Halpin flew to left. Jax escaped with one run on the board and nobody else across.

Gavin Williams had already struck out Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero in a 1-2-3 first. He struck out Hicks to end a 1-2-3 second. He struck out Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls in a 1-2-3 third. Through three, Tampa Bay had not put a runner on.

Ramírez singled in the third. DeLauter grounded out. Still 1-0.

Simpson's triple, then the inning Jax could not finish

Williams finally paid for a miss in the fourth. Yandy Díaz doubled to left. Aranda swung through a strikeout. Caminero swung through another. Victor Mesa Jr. walked. Two outs, two on, and the Rays' best contact hitter at the plate.

Chandler Simpson lined a triple into the right-field corner. Díaz scored. Mesa scored. 2-1, Tampa Bay. Hicks struck out swinging. That was the whole Tampa Bay file: two runs, two hits at that point, and one extra-base knock that had to be perfect.

Jax answered with a 1-2-3 fourth. Williams answered with a 1-2-3 fifth: Jonny DeLuca to third, Palacios to first, Walls swinging. Then Bailey chopped the ball Jax could not glove, and Halpin did the rest.

The Associated Press recap put the homer at 2-2, an elevated sinker that leaked over the plate. Jax had not allowed a homer since September 9. It was Halpin's first postseason homer and the fifth of a two-year big-league career.

"He does a good job handling off-speed, so it was the right pitch. Just the wrong location," Jax said in that recap.

"If it wasn't me, it was going to be somebody else," Halpin told MLB.com. "I'm just having that faith and having that trust that somebody's going to get the job done and it takes kind of some pressure off of you."

Brayan Rocchio singled after the homer. Tyler Wells inherited a mess and got Kwan, then Ramírez, then DeLauter swinging. The 3-2 held.

Sixteen of seventeen, and a 10-pitch strikeout at third

Williams was done after five: two hits, two earned, one walk, nine strikeouts, 70 pitches, the win (2-0). The MLB recap put him at 33 strikeouts over 16 2/3 postseason innings and a 45.9% strikeout rate, the highest in MLB history among pitchers with 10 or more innings in a postseason, ahead of Corey Knebel.

"The punchouts are cool, but I think there's a bigger goal than just the punchouts," Williams told MLB.com. "I think it's more about trying to help the team win and giving them the best possible shot throughout the game to get the win."

Daniel Espino threw a 1-2-3 sixth with a hold. Wells struck out the side in the bottom half after an ABS challenge flipped Lowe from ball to strike. Erik Sabrowski threw a 1-2-3 seventh with another hold. Steven Matz threw a 1-2-3 seventh for Tampa Bay.

The eighth was the only late noise. Hunter Gaddis popped DeLuca, then watched Palacios double to right. Walls grounded to first, a pinch-runner moving to third. Cade Smith inherited that runner and that lead. He struck out Díaz swinging in a 10-pitch at-bat. The Associated Press recap said that was the stranded runner at third. Smith then retired Aranda, Caminero, and Mesa in the ninth. Save No. 2. 1 1/3 innings, no hits, two strikeouts, 18 pitches.

Cleveland retired 16 of Tampa Bay's last 17 batters, the AP recap said. Caminero finished 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

"We have to make adjustments. That's plain and simple," Caminero said through interpreter Kevin Vera in the MLB recap. "The pitches that they throw are the same pitches that the other 29 teams throw across the league."

Kevin Cash, in the same recap: "Look, we gotta hit. We went into the game, we knew we had our challenges. But look up, two runs on two hits. You gotta be perfect to win games like that."

Friday, rain, and a 2-1 series

Game 4 is Friday at Progressive Field. Nick Martinez is listed for Tampa Bay. Cleveland's starter was not posted on the MLB schedule feed when the card went up. Rain is in the forecast again. Games 5, if needed, stays in Cleveland.

The MLB recap noted that in best-of-seven series tied 1-1, the Game 3 winner has gone on to take the series 71 of 102 times. That is a number. It is not Friday's first pitch. Tampa Bay still has the better regular-season record. Cleveland has won five of its last six playoff games since trailing the White Sox 0-2 in the ALDS.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Cleveland at 7 team fantasy points on a 3-2. Williams had 19 pitching FP. Smith had 10.33. Espino and Sabrowski sat at 9 each. Halpin led hitters at 6. Simpson sat at 5 on the triple. Tampa Bay sat at 0. Fantasy points measure the night. Share price is what the market pays. They move together, but they are not the same number. See dynamic pricing.

Track the Guardians and Rays on the marketplace. Information only; not financial advice.

*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; MLB.com recap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*