ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Everything is a blur for the Cleveland Guardians as they head into the American League Championship Series on Monday. After partying until the early-morning hours Sunday after defeating the Chicago White Sox in a tense Game 5, the team got little sleep before boarding a flight to St. Petersburg, where the Guardians will face the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt hadn’t even picked his starting pitcher for Game 1 yet.
“You start thinking about it this morning,” he acknowledged, “because you couldn’t think about it last night.”
A half-hour before the team’s Sunday evening workout at Tropicana Field, Vogt informed Foster Griffin that he will start Game 1.
“We had our good bit of fun, for sure,” Guardians outfielder Jo Adell said. “And now we’re on to the next thing.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash, on the other hand, has known for the better part of a week that Drew Rasmussen, who flirted with a no-hitter against the New York Yankees in the wild-card round, will pitch Game 1.
In stark contrast to the Guardians, the Rays will start the series coming off four days of baseball R&R -- rested after a relaxed schedule. Tampa Bay clinched last Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, dried off Thursday, and on Saturday, the Rays held an intrasquad game that included piped-in crowd music at Tropicana Field and the personalized walk-up music for each hitter.
As Cleveland played late into Saturday night, Rays pitcher Griffin Jax watched Game 5 on television at home, juggling the lineup cards of both teams along with his 1-year-old and 3-year-old.
“I had the [lineup cards] in my hand trying to wrestle these two kids, without letting them trying to crumple them,” Jax said.
Slugger Junior Caminero watched the game from home, as did Cash, who flipped back and forth between the AL Division Series and the Georgia-Alabama football game.
Rasmussen watched the Guardians’ game proactively, mentally preparing for his Game 1 start -- a choice that Cash formally announced Sunday.
“I think pretty obvious, easy choice for us,” Cash said. “Hopefully he can go and come close to doing what he did in Game 1 of the DS.”
Rasmussen pitched against the Yankees on Oct. 3 and will be working on eight days of rest. Freddy Peralta, Nick Martinez and Jax are fully rested and available for this series.
“At the end of the day, I think it is an advantage having this rest,” Jax said. “The season is really long, 162 games, not a lot of off days. Bullpen was kind of wearing it towards the end of the year. Especially for [the Rays relievers], with how the ALDS went, not having to rely on them as much as we necessarily did throughout the season was huge for those guys.
“But it’s an age-old debate, rest versus rust. I think any player would rather have the rest there, just give yourself a breather.”
The schedule won’t afford the Guardians that kind of luxury. Shortstop Brayan Rocchio, saturated from the adrenaline of the White Sox series, said he struggled to fall asleep, estimating he snoozed 30 minutes on the flight to Florida.
Other Guardians lived similar timelines.
“We’re going to be fine,” Rocchio laughed.
Griffin did not start in the ALDS, working 2⅔ innings in relief in Game 3, and Vogt will have to wait to deploy his best starters. Gavin Williams dominated the White Sox for 5⅔ innings Saturday but probably will not be available to start again until Game 3. Parker Messick, an AL Rookie of the Year candidate who started Game 4 of the White Sox series, could be fully rested for a Game 2 start, although he appeared flat in his last outing against the White Sox.
The Rays and Guardians are viewed within the industry as two of the most progressive teams, with their employees often hired by other organizations. They operate with similar philosophies, and there is a lot of shared DNA. Cash worked for the Guardians before he was hired by Tampa Bay; Vogt started his playing career with Tampa Bay in 2012. Rays designated hitter Yandy Diaz played for Cleveland before he was traded to Tampa Bay after the 2018 season. Guardians first baseman Nathaniel Lowe debuted with the Rays back in 2019.
Caminero will be playing against the organization that first signed him professionally in 2019, the summer he turned 16. Later that September, he met Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor, who was the team’s shortstop at the time. Two years later, Caminero was traded to Tampa Bay for Tobias Myers.
“They fired me,” Caminero said in Spanish during Sunday’s workout, his voice and expression deadpan in a conversation with ESPN’s Enrique Rojas.
“They traded you,” Rojas corrected him, in English.
“Traded,” Caminero echoed, and then in Spanish added, seemingly half-kidding, “Now they will pay.”
Tampa Bay left-hander Shane McClanahan will not be available for the remainder of the postseason, Cash announced. He was sidelined in early September with forearm tightness, and while Cash said he is healthy now, the Rays decided to shut him down rather than push to ramp him up in the chance he might be available in the last days of the postseason.
McClanahan had a 3.36 ERA in 24 starts after missing two years with arm injuries. He’ll go into next season -- after MLB’s labor situation is resolved -- fully healthy, Cash said.