Rasmussen shines as Rays beat Guardians 3-1 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 ALCS lead

CLEVELAND (AP) — Tampa Bay's Jonny DeLuca figured it was going to be a quiet day for the outfielders with Drew Rasmussen on the mound for Game 5 of the AL Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians

With the way Rasmussen quieted the Guardians offense on Sunday, that made for a perfect evening.

“It gets kind of boring out there because it’s incredible the stuff he has," DeLuca said. “But you like that because he’s your teammate."

Rasmussen allowed one run over seven innings for his second postseason win in a 3-1 victory that gave the Rays a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out six.

“The way he limited anything was really, really impressive,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He got in rhythm with the fastball. A lot of power to everything. Then the depth on the changeup throughout the outing was a big pitch for him.”

Tampa Bay has won the last two games and will try to capture its third AL pennant and first since 2020 on Monday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Since the ALCS expanded to best-of-seven games in 1985, road teams winning Game 5 for a 3-2 lead have won the series four of five times.

“It’s a great opportunity. All of us are thinking of it. But it all ends tomorrow. We’re going to win tomorrow,” said designated hitter Yandy Díaz, who had three hits.

Game 7 if needed would be Tuesday. The World Series starts Friday at NL champion Milwaukee.

Rasmussen had given up two runs over six innings in the opener. After Chase DeLauter’s two-out single in the first, the 31-year-old right-hander retired nine straight batters and allowed only one other baserunner through the sixth.

Rasmussen is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three postseason starts, striking out 23 and walking three

He used his changeup only 12 times in the opener but threw it 27 times on Sunday, including 21 for strikes.

“We were able to attack with the changeup a lot more tonight," he said. "The ability to drive the cutter to the top I thought was also another strength.”

Cleveland finally threatened in the seventh when Steven Kwan and José Ramírez singled to put runners at the corners, and DeLauter grounded an RBI single between first and second.

Cam Booser and Tyler Wells worked the eighth, with Wells striking out Ramírez to strand a runner.

Bryan Baker came in for the ninth and converted his 35th straight save chance, his fifth of this postseason. Jo Adell was on second base when Travis Bazzana hit a game-ending groundout.

Tampa Bay scored single runs in each of the first three innings, the first two off Parker Messick and the third against Tim Herrin.

Tampa Bay’s leadoff hitter reached base in the first four innings — scoring in the first three frames — and six times overall. Rays' leadoff batters have reached in 10 of 14 innings dating to Saturday.

Díaz scored on a bases-loaded walk by Messick to DeLuca in the first inning. Díaz led off with a line-drive double over center fielder Petey Halpin that bounced on the warning track and off the wall.

Jonathan Aranda’s single drove in Ben Williamson for a 2-0 lead in the second, and Liam Hicks looped a curveball from Herrin to center to score Chandler Simpson in the third.

“I think we took advantage of getting ourselves in some favorable counts and getting some big hits,” Cash said. “We probably left some opportunities out there, and then they go to the bullpen, and it’s really challenging to piece together big innings when they’re mixing and matching from the third or fourth inning, whatever it was, on.”

Kwan had two of Cleveland’s five hits and the four-time Gold Glove winner made two fine defensive plays: He threw out Walls trying to score from second base on Aranda’s fourth-inning single to left and made a leaping catch at the center-field wall on Victor Mesa Jr.’s eighth-inning drive, saving a run.

Messick had the shortest outing of his big league career and didn’t make it past the third inning for the second time in four postseason starts. The 25-year-old left-hander went two innings and allowed two runs, five hits and three walks, throwing just 34 of 57 pitches for strikes.

Cleveland has not won an ALCS when trailing 3-2 while the Rays are 58-27 at home this year, including the postseason.

The Guardians are seeking their first World Series title since 1948.

“We know we’ve got our work cut out for us. It’s a really good team and a really good team when they play at home, especially,” manager Stephen Vogt said. ”We know this is going to be tough but if there’s a group I’m betting on to get this done, it’s our guys.”

Tampa Bay will start right-hander Freddy Peralta (1-0, 0.79 ERA postseason), who will make his third appearance of the series. He threw six scoreless innings in his Game 2 start and pitched two-thirds of an inning in relief on Saturday. Cleveland has not announced a starter, and Vogt ruled out using right-hander Gavin Williams.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez throws out Tampa Bay Rays' Chandler Simpson at first during the eighth inning in Game 5 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays' Liam Hicks watches his RBI-single against the Cleveland Guardians during the third inning in Game 5 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Parker Messick reacts after walking in a run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning in Game 5 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays' Ben Williamson scores past Cleveland Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey during the second inning in Game 5 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen celebrates the end of the seventh inning against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 5 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in Cleveland, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Uzbekistan on Monday to promote trade and ties with Central Asia, during a trip that came amid rumblings that America’s top diplomat is ignoring pressing matters in favor of politically safer visits and meetings.

The trip, which involves a stop in India later this week, seeks to promote U.S. economic and security ties with Central and South Asia. But it has only tangential links to the Trump administration’s current main foreign policy dilemmas in the Middle East and with the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rubio has brushed aside suggestions he is eschewing the most difficult issues in favor of taking on lower-hanging diplomatic fruit with less risk of failure and political damage, and the State Department pushed back on the criticism of his schedule.

In Samarkand, Rubio was meeting with his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan under the C5+1 diplomatic forum, which brings together the five Central Asian countries and the United States to discuss security, trade and other shared concerns.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Rubio said “the United States wants to be a strong partner in Central Asia.”

“Central Asia has just not gotten the level of attention from our policymakers over the last 20 years that it deserves. But that’s changing. That’s why we’re here now,” he said.

Despite repeated assurances from multiple administrations that the U.S. would become more actively involved in Central Asia, the region has often languished as a foreign policy priority in Washington.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Central Asian nations saw a brief surge in U.S. interest, but that waned until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, which turned America’s attention once again toward Afghanistan and its neighbors.

The U.S. established a military presence in several countries mainly as transit points for equipment, materiel and provisions needed by U.S. and allied forces fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

As the U.S. wound down its 20-year operation in Afghanistan, the Trump administration, in both its first and second terms, has sought to elevate its ties with Central Asia due to its location between Russia and China, but also as an underdeveloped area ripe for U.S. business opportunities.

Rubio’s trip, which has been heavily promoted by the U.S. ambassador to India and special presidential envoy for Central Asia, Sergio Gor, is perhaps the most ambitious U.S. attempt in decades to boost economic and commercial ties with the region. Speaking to reporters in Samarkand, Rubio described “an incredible delegation” with representatives of almost 300 American businesses joining.

“Historically, Central Asia has been the crossroads for trade between the West and the East. And today, as part of a broader renaissance and global engagement, it stands once again to play that vital role in transnational commerce," he told officials at the meeting.

The region is "a new location for investment, and it serves as a new location for export, a central terminal out of which materials that are vital for the future of all nations are being delivered,” he added.

President Donald Trump hosted their leaders at a White House summit last November, and announced more than $130 billion in commercial deals, including agreements for regional airlines to purchase Boeing aircraft.

The administration has also been keen to get the Muslim majority countries to join the Abraham Accords, which expanded the number of Arab states with diplomatic ties with Israel. Kazakhstan, which had already recognized Israel, is the only one of the five to sign the accords.

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a meeting with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov, not pictured, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio participates in the C5+1 ministerial meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, third from right, participates in the C5+1 Ministerial with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubayev at the Congress Center in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio poses for a C5+1 Ministerial family photo with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi, Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubayev at the Congress Center in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Pool Photo via AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press next to Uzbekistan's Head of the Presidential Administration Saida Mirziyoyeva at Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (Kylie Cooper/Pool Photo via AP)