LIVE on ESPN2: Rays-Guardians Game 2 FAQ, lineups

LIVE on ESPN2: Rays-Guardians Game 2 FAQ, lineups

October 8th, 2022

CLEVELAND -- And just like that, the Guardians are one win away from an American League Division Series date with the Yankees, while the Rays are breaking Glas in case of emergency.

“Glas,” of course, is , who made his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery two weeks ago -- coincidentally, against the Guardians -- and has looked sharp in two starts. With the Rays in a 1-0 hole after a 2-1 loss in the opener of this best-of-three AL Wild Card Series at Progressive Field, they’ll be counting on their ace, who will likely be limited to somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 to 85 pitches, to set a triumphant tone and then be ready to back him up with an arsenal of arms in Game 2 on Saturday afternoon.

• AL Wild Card Game 2, pres. by Hankook Tire: LIVE on ESPN2

“It feels good to hand it over to Glasnow,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “It feels good that Shane [McClanahan] was so good [in Game 1] that we basically got a whole fresh bullpen ready to go.”

The Guardians will counter with a fresh , whose breakout was a big key to their rise this season. Cleveland has not advanced in the postseason since the 2016 run to the AL pennant. A win on Saturday would change that.

• Postseason ticket information: Rays | Guardians

When is the game and how can I watch it?

The game is LIVE and airing on ESPN2.

All series are available in the U.S. on MLB.TV with authentication to a participating Pay TV provider. Games are not available live internationally (archives are available approximately 90 minutes after the game ends).

What are the starting lineups?

Rays: The only change from Friday's lineup is Isaac Paredes got the nod at second over Taylor Walls, with Manuel Margot and Christian Bethancourt sliding down one spot in the order.

1. , 3B
2. , SS
3. , LF
4. Harold Ramírez, DH
5. , 1B
6. , 2B
7. , RF
8. , C
9. , CF

Guardians: With the right-handed Glasnow on the mound for Game 2, rookie Will Brennan got the start at DH, since he's hitting .389 with a .992 OPS against righties as opposed to a .167 average against lefties. Not only is this his first postseason appearance, but it’s just the 12th big league game of his career. But if inexperience hasn’t slowed Cleveland down thus far, why start worrying about it now?

1. , LF
2. , SS
3. José Ramírez, 3B
4.  , 1B
5. , RF
6. , 2B
7. , DH
8. , C
9. , CF

Who are the starting pitchers?

Rays: Glasnow (0-0, 1.35 ERA) will make just his third Major League start of the year, but he looked to be in midseason form last time out against the Red Sox. Pitching coach Kyle Snyder said Glasnow’s stuff was as good as ever -- as in, even before Tommy John surgery -- while he struck out seven over 3 2/3 innings at Fenway Park. He will likely add an inning and 15-20 pitches to his workload as he continues to get stretched out, so expect a maximum of five innings (or 75-85 pitches) of nasty stuff from Glasnow.

Guardians: Triston McKenzie (11-11, 2.96 ERA) has been rock solid all season. After a year in which he struggled with command to the point that he was demoted to Triple-A, McKenzie was exceptionally reliable for Cleveland in 2022, tossing a career-high 191 1/3 innings. He’s been proud of his durability this season, working into the sixth inning in 25 of his 30 starts without any stints on the IL. He faced the Rays on Sept. 28 and gave up one run on three hits in six frames, with six strikeouts and one walk.

How will the bullpens line up after the starter?

Rays: Their season is on the line, so it should be an all-hands-on-deck afternoon. Since Shane McClanahan pitched seven innings in Game 1, requiring the Rays to use only reliever Garrett Cleavinger for one inning, Cash noted, “We’ve got a whole fresh bullpen ready to go.” That could include starter Drew Rasmussen or perhaps even lefty Jeffrey Springs, but it will almost certainly mean a heavy dose of high-leverage relievers Jason Adam and Pete Fairbanks.

Guardians: Thanks to a stellar 7 2/3 innings from starter Shane Bieber in Game 1, the Guardians’ bullpen is well-rested. The team let closer Emmanuel Clase know before the postseason began to be ready once the seventh inning rolls around, even though he didn’t work more than one inning in any of his Major League-leading 77 appearances this season. He was tested on Friday, picking up the four-out save. But Cleveland hasn’t been afraid to turn to him frequently this season, and because he threw just 11 pitches, he should be in the clear to work again on Saturday.

Any injuries of note?

Rays: A whole bunch of them. The nine players on the 60-day IL are Nick Anderson, Shane Baz, J.P. Feyereisen, Kevin Kiermaier, Andrew Kittredge, Brandon Lowe, Brendan McKay, Ryan Thompson and Mike Zunino. They are also without lefties Colin Poche and Ryan Yarbrough and outfielder Roman Quinn, who are on the 10/15-day IL. Díaz started Friday after missing a lot of time down the stretch due to a left shoulder injury, but he’s still worth monitoring after an uncharacteristic 0-for-4, two-strikeout performance in Game 1.

Guardians: Cleveland has alluded to the fact that a few guys are “a little beat up” at this point in the season. Andrés Giménez was given back-to-back days off last week to help him get some rest, and José Ramírez has been dealing with some right thumb trouble all year. But that hasn’t appeared to slow this team down.

Who is hot and who is not?

Rays: Jose Siri homered off Shane Bieber in Game 1, which will certainly boost his confidence heading into Game 2. Choi walked and had good at-bats on Friday after finishing a miserable second half with an 8-for-19 stretch at the plate. Springs might have been the Rays’ best pitcher during that time, putting together a 1.57 ERA over his last seven outings, and Glasnow headed into the postseason on a high note. Fairbanks is the reliever to watch, as he ended the season on a 22-game scoreless streak.

On the other hand, the rest of the Rays’ lineup has struggled for weeks. Arozarena went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 1 after finishing the season in a 2-for-29 slump. Margot went 0-for-3 on Friday after a 23-for-110 finish. Harold Ramírez broke up Bieber’s no-hit bid with a ground-ball single in the fifth inning, but he has only three hits in his last 27 at-bats.

Guardians: Ramírez has been the hottest bat in this lineup. He ended the year with a four-hit performance on Wednesday in Game 162 and was the hero on Friday in Game 1 with a go-ahead two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth. Backstop Austin Hedges would fall under the “not” category. The Guardians never expected him to be a main source of offensive production this year, as the club values his defense and ability to lead a pitching staff (especially a young one) more. But Hedges has hit just .163 this season and had just one hit in his last 42 regular-season at-bats over 16 games. He started the Wild Card Series going 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts.

Anything else fans might want to know?

• MLB has only a limited history of three-game playoff series, but the expanded postseason in 2020 did give us eight Wild Card series that were best of three. Six of the eight teams that won Game 1 in those series advanced. All six of those were two-game sweeps. However, the two teams that evened things up in Game 2 (A’s vs. White Sox, Padres vs. Cardinals) then won Game 3 as well. If you add in four previous best-of-three tiebreaker series that decided NL pennants between 1946-62, then the Game 1 winner improves to 10-2 all-time in that format.

• Friday was the Rays’ first defeat in Wild Card play in club history. Tampa Bay had previously been 4-0 in Wild Card rounds, having won the 2013 Wild Card Game in Cleveland, the 2019 Wild Card Game in Oakland and both games in a 2020 Wild Card Series matchup against Toronto.

• On the flip side, Friday marked Cleveland’s first postseason win since Game 3 of the 2017 ALDS against the Yankees, snapping an eight-game skid.