Peralta, Caminero and Díaz lead Rays to 7-3 win over Guardians and a trip to the World Series

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Freddy Peralta threw 5 1/3 gritty innings, Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz each hit a two-run homer and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night to advance to the World Series for the third time in the franchise’s 29 seasons.

The Rays will face the Milwaukee Brewers in the first matchup in which both teams are seeking their first World Series title since 1980, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals.

Game 1 is Friday night in Milwaukee.

“We got one more bite!” Rays manager Kevin Cash told his team as the clubhouse celebration started.

The loss extended Cleveland’s World Series championship drought to 78 years.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our group,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “It just hurts. It stings. Really felt like we had a team to go and just weren’t able to get there.”

On the 18-year anniversary of their first AL pennant in 2008, the Rays jumped ahead 2-0 in the second inning on Richie Palacios’ two-run double and clinched it with closer Bryan Baker on the mound.

The Guardians wouldn’t give up and had the go-ahead run at first base in the eighth when Kevin Kelly struck out Brayan Rocchio to leave the bases loaded after two runs scored.

Peralta, the ALCS MVP, allowed one run and five hits to earn his second win of the series in his third appearance. He pitched six scoreless innings to win Game 2 and got two outs in relief in Game 4.

A sellout crowd of 40,230 fans waved yellow-and-blue rally towels, rang cowbells and chanted “Let’s go Rays!” throughout the night at Tropicana Field, which needed major renovations after Hurricane Milton shredded the roof two years ago and caused extensive damage throughout the stadium.

The Rays played their 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at the New York Yankees’ spring training complex, got new ownership before this season and secured a new stadium deal to bear ready in 2029 near the NFL’s Buccaneers. They returned to the Trop to win 55 games in the regular season. Only the Brewers had that many home wins this year.

“This is for you!” Caminero yelled to the crowd from a microphone on the field after the game. “Let’s go! I can’t hear you!”

After sweeping the Yankees in the Division Series, the Rays fell behind the Guardians 0-1 and 1-2 in this series before taking three straight games.

Caminero gave Tampa Bay a cushion with his first career postseason homer in the seventh inning. The two-time All-Star sent a drive off the left-field foul pole to give the Rays a 5-1 lead, becoming the first player to go deep on a splitter by All-Star closer Cade Smith.

Caminero turned around before reaching first base, looked toward his dugout and pounded his chest with both arms, cupped his ear rounding second to hear more cheers, stopped before reaching the plate, pointed into the stands and crossed his arms before crossing home.

Caminero hit 42 homers in the regular season but needed 33 at-bats to get his first in October.

The Guardians answered against Tyler Wells and Ian Seymour by loading the bases on two singles and a walk with two outs. Seymour walked Patrick Bailey to force in one run and hit Angel Martínez with a pitch to force in another. Kelly entered and fanned Rocchio on three changeups.

“Credit to our guys. It’s a gut punch there in the seventh. And our guys came right back," Vogt said. “Our guys never quit. They never stopped fighting. That’s who they are.”

Díaz, who guaranteed a Game 6 victory through an interpreter on Sunday, gave the Rays another four-run lead with a two-run shot off Hunter Gaddis in the bottom of the eighth.

Caminero led off the Tampa Bay second with single off opener Shawn Armstrong, who took the loss in his second start in three games. Left-hander Tim Herrin replaced Armstrong. Chandler Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second before Victor Mesa Jr. walked. Simpson advanced to third on Jonny DeLuca’s flyout to center. After Mesa stole second, Palacios looped a double to right-center for a 2-0 lead.

Armstrong, who was the opener in Game 4, faced the first four batters, becoming the first pitcher in postseason history to start a game after pitching both of the previous two days.

DeLuca’s sacrifice fly off Joey Cantillo made it 3-0 in the third but the Rays missed an opportunity to break it open with more runs after they loaded the bases with no outs.

Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single in the sixth drove in Cleveland’s first run.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta celebrates after their win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero celebrates their win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate their win in the locker room against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026.(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero celebrates a two-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians during the seventh inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta hold the MVP trophy after their win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Freddy Peralta celebrates their win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Bryan Baker celebrates their win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Tampa Bay Rays base after winning Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Bryan Baker celebrates their win against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero scores past Cleveland Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey sacrifice fly during the third inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Cam Booser celebrates the third out in the against the Cleveland Guardians during the sixth inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero scores past Cleveland Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey sacrifice fly during the third inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero celebrates a two-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians during the seventh inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Junior Caminero celebrates a two-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians during the seventh inning in Game 6 of an American League Championship Series baseball game in St. Petersburg, Fla. Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 20, 2026--

Blackwall today announced it has raised $100 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. This C Round was led by AVP, who join existing investors Dawn Capital, MMC Ventures and Tera Ventures.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261020736847/en/

The new round of financing accelerates Blackwall's objective to build a global traffic management ecosystem around its hosting-provider network. By connecting providers, infrastructure and technology, Blackwall aims to provide greater control over how internet traffic is managed, secured and monetized.

Blackwall will use the investment to scale its global presence across the web traffic management market, establishing and expanding operations across 12 strategic regions spanning North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Currently spanning bot mitigation, DDoS protection, web application firewall, load balancing, server-side encryption and management of agentic AI traffic which is rapidly taking over the Internet, Blackwall is deployed inside the web hosting providers’ own infrastructure, identifying real visitors and legitimate automated traffic from malicious bots, attacks and traffic abuse, filtering billions of requests per day.

The new funding will also be leveraged to expand Blackwall’s platform, introducing new traffic security capabilities for the hosting market that enable hosting, cloud and managed service providers to address a broader share of their customers' traffic management needs through a single infrastructure layer.

"The web is becoming more automated, more distributed and more complex, but the infrastructure that powers it remains highly fragmented," said Nikita Rozenberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Blackwall. "Our ambition is to build the traffic management ecosystem that brings those worlds together. This funding allows us to expand globally, deepen our platform and give hosting and infrastructure providers the technology they need to participate in the next generation of the web."

Blackwall partners with web hosting, managed service and cloud providers that run much of the web. Hosting is a $200 billion market, and a fragmented one, because infrastructure has to stay close to the businesses it serves; for most of the web, the provider is the only route to a site at scale. Unlike the hyperscale and content-delivery platforms that compete with providers for their own customers, Blackwall sits inside the provider's infrastructure and strengthens the relationship between the provider and the businesses it hosts.

For web hosting providers the economics of Blackwall’s platform work in two ways. First, Blackwall stops unwanted traffic before it reaches their servers, cutting infrastructure and operating costs and making their customers' sites faster. Second, with the modular nature of Blackwall’s customer-facing web security features, providers can package, bundle and tier its components as products of their own, earning new revenue without building or maintaining the technology themselves.

"Blackwall has built something rare: a security company that grows with the internet itself," said Warda Shaheen, General Partner at AVP. "It is already the layer in front of millions of websites, and as more of the web's traffic comes from agents, the company in that position becomes indispensable. That's why we're leading this round."

Norman Fiore, General Partner at Dawn Capital, commented: “A tsunami of agents will overwhelm infrastructure optimised for human traffic. Nik and Denis are already delivering to their millions of customers the infrastructure optimised for the coming agentic web, and commercial success will flow to those businesses that are retooling today.”

Mina Samaan, General Partner, MMC Ventures, added: "We've backed Blackwall from its early days and have seen the business scale into critical infrastructure for the web. As AI changes how traffic moves across the internet, Blackwall's position at the front door of millions of websites has never been more important."

Stanislav Ivanov, Founding Partner, Tera Ventures: “Nik and Denis combine real grit, deep technical knowledge and a rare grasp of where the opportunity lies and how to capture it. Blackwall, now protecting millions of websites, is exactly the kind of born-global company Tera exists to back. We were their first believers, backing them from day one through the early years of building the product and winning its first partners and customers. This round shows we’re far from the last.”

About Blackwall

Blackwall is building the global web traffic management ecosystem, enabling hosting, cloud and managed service providers to manage, secure and optimize traffic across their entire customer base. Through a single integration, Blackwall gives providers a scalable platform to deliver and monetize security, performance and traffic management services while retaining control of their infrastructure and customer relationships. Built to grow with its partners, Blackwall is expanding its platform and global footprint to become the technology partner behind the service providers that power the web. Blackwall is backed by AVP, Dawn Capital, MMC Ventures and Tera Ventures.

About AVP

AVP is an independent global investment platform dedicated to high-growth, tech (from deep-tech to tech-enabled) companies across Europe and North America, managing more than €2.5bn of assets across venture and growth strategies. Its multi-stage platform combines global research with local execution to drive investment. Since its establishment in 2016, AVP has invested in more than 80 technology companies. Beyond providing equity capital, its expansion team works closely with founders, providing the expertise, connections, and resources needed to unlock growth opportunities and create lasting value through meaningful collaborations.

About Dawn Capital

Dawn is Europe's leading specialist B2B software investor, with assets under management of over $2bn. Dawn is primarily an early-stage investor, backing companies from Series A and B, and continuing to fund the top-performing through growth rounds to exit. Its roster of investments includes Mimecast (formerly NASDAQ-listed, taken private by Permira in a $5.8bn transaction), iZettle (sold to PayPal for $2.2bn cash), Tink (purchased by Visa for $2.0bn), LeanIX (acquired by SAP), as well as current market leaders, Collibra, Dataiku, Quantexa, Soldo, and Copper, amongst others.

Dawn is currently investing from Dawn Capital V, the firm's $620m fifth flagship fund, and Dawn Opportunities Fund, an $80m fund to enable Dawn to double down on its best performing companies to exit.

About MMC Ventures

MMC is a leading European venture capital firm with a research-driven approach. It invests in early-stage transformative technology companies that utilize AI and data science across sectors including enterprise AI, fintech, data-driven health and cloud & data infrastructure. Examples of companies MMC has backed include: Synthesia, Copper, Signal AI, Interactive Investor, Current Health, YuLife and Cloudsmith.

About Tera Ventures

Tera Ventures is a Tallinn-based seed-stage venture capital firm and one of the longest-running seed investors in the Nordic and Baltic region. Tera backs born-global founders from the Nordics, the Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe. It invests with high conviction, often as a company’s first institutional backer, and stays alongside founders well beyond the first cheque, including through the toughest stretches of building a company.

Blackwall founders Denis Prochko and Nikita Rozenberg (L-R)