Rays wait for ALCS opponent after winning 101 games playing any brand of baseball needed to win

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bays Rays showed they can play any brand of baseball during a sweep of the New York Yankees.

They mixed power from likely and unlikely sources and their usual small-ball style along with dominant pitching, excellent fielding and strong fundamentals.

That was the formula that led to 98 wins in the regular season, three more against the Yankees and has the Rays waiting for their opponent in the AL Championship Series.

Tampa Bay faces either the Cleveland Guardians or Chicago White Sox. Game 5 of that series is Saturday night.

“I think what the guys have done so incredibly well is shown the ability to kind of adjust on the fly and some of that is reactive,” manager Kevin Cash said Friday. “Like, we got a starter that’s rolling against us or some tough matchups for us, to have the ability to shift gears and say, alright, we’re gonna see if we can get a leadoff runner on or get a guy at second base and move him over, or we put pressure on the defense when you got a high strikeout guy on the mound and there’s a guy at third with less than two outs and put pressure on the pitcher, the defense to drop a bunt down.

“I don’t overlook that at all. I think that’s who we are. And, there are some nights that we’re gonna need to go out and slug with the opponent, but there are some nights that we’re gonna do everything we can to just scratch and claw to get a run across the board.”

Drew Rasmussen was so dominant in the series opener against New York that Jonathan Aranda’s solo homer was all the support needed.

But the Rays’ pesky style of putting the ball in play, moving runners over, using their speed and taking advantage of mistakes was the difference in Game 2. The Yankees fell apart defensively and Tampa Bay made them pay for it in a 5-2 win.

The Rays finished off New York with a 4-3 victory on Wednesday behind homers from Victor Mesa Jr. and Ryan Vilade – two guys who went deep a combined 25 times in the regular season.

The Rays were David against the Goliath Yankees, who opened the season with MLB’s third-highest payroll at $303 million to $91 million for Tampa Bay.

The players weren’t paying attention to that disparity.

“We don’t care, and I think that’s an ultimate credit to our players,” Cash said. “They don’t focus on that. They come in day in, day out doing whatever they can to help us win a game that night. So I respect that it’s talked about throughout the industry, but ultimately, it comes down to having really good players that came together this season and have found multiple ways to win games.”

They'll face a team with an even smaller payroll in the ALCS. The Guardians had the lowest opening day 40-man payroll this year at $75.5 million and the White Sox had the third-lowest payroll to start the season.

The Rays were 4-2 this year against the White Sox and 5-1 versus Cleveland. They will have played just three games in 14 days before the ALCS opener at Tropicana Field on Monday night.

“They’ve had a great series, know that they’re two very talented teams, excited to watch how that’s going to unfold (Saturday) night,” Cash said.

Cash wouldn't name Rasmussen his Game 1 starter, though the All-Star right-hander is the obvious choice. He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Yankees and will be on eight days' rest.

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