Two Teammates Collided in the Ninth, and Cleveland Stole Game 1 From the Rays Anyway

You could hear the crowd gasp before either player hit the ground.

Top of the ninth inning at Tropicana Field, the Guardians holding a four-run lead, Brayan Rocchio’s foul pop drifting toward the third-base side near the visiting bullpen. Junior Caminero drifted back with his eyes on the ball, Jonny DeLuca sprinted in with his eyes on the ball, and neither man saw the other until DeLuca, at full speed, ran straight into Caminero’s chest. Caminero dangled his glove arm, looked back at his teammate, and then both of them went down along the fence.

For a few seconds, with an ALCS opener hanging in the balance and Tampa Bay’s best player crumpled on the warning track, nobody in St. Petersburg was thinking about the score. Cleveland had already done the damage anyway. The Guardians beat the Rays 7-3 on Monday night to take a 1-0 lead in the American League Championship Series, stealing home-field advantage from a 98-win team in its own building. But the image that traveled furthest by Tuesday morning, the one sitting at the top of Google’s trending searches in the US, was two teammates who forgot they shared the same field.

The crash everybody is talking about

Let’s be precise about what happened, because the replays make it look worse than it was. With nobody out and a runner on second, Rocchio lifted a foul pop that started drifting toward the third-base line, deep enough to reach the left-field corner near the Guardians’ bullpen. Caminero, the Rays’ All-Star third baseman, backpedaled with his glove in the air, tracking it over his shoulder. DeLuca, playing outfield, came charging in at a full sprint.

Both missed the ball. DeLuca got there just as Caminero’s left shoulder turned into the path, and the collision was square and violent, DeLuca slamming to the turf while Caminero buckled and dropped a couple of feet behind him. Trainers came out. The stadium went quiet. Then, slowly, both players got up and stayed in the game.

“He’s OK,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters after the game. “I think he got the wind knocked out of him a little bit. I actually didn’t even notice that he went down. I was looking at DeLuca. He popped up pretty quick and I didn’t realize that Cammy had fallen down a couple feet behind him. But I think he just got the wind knocked out of him, and he seems to be totally fine now.”

Caminero finished 1-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. DeLuca went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Both have been with the Rays since 2023, and both were fine enough to play on. Still, for a fan base that watched its season come down to one swing so many times this October, watching their franchise player flatten a teammate was a moment nobody needed.

How Cleveland actually won the game

Lost in the ninth-inning drama is the fact that Cleveland methodically took this game apart. The Rays jumped ahead early, up two runs, and it looked for a while like the home team would do what it always does to the Guardians. Tampa Bay went 5-1 against Cleveland in the regular season. The Rays swept the Yankees in the ALDS and had four days of rest. Everything was set up for them.

Then the Guardians scored seven runs across the final four innings. Nathaniel Lowe’s two-run single broke the tie in the eighth. Cedric Mullins homered in the eighth too. Foster Griffin and Drew Rasmussen started the game for Cleveland and Tampa Bay respectively, and once the bullpens took over, Cleveland’s hitters kept coming.

The final was 7-3, and it marked the Rays’ first loss of this postseason. Cleveland, meanwhile, has now won four straight games after falling behind 0-2 in the ALDS against the White Sox. That series ended with a 2-0 Game 5 win and a record 21 strikeouts, and the Guardians have not lost since.

The ghost of 2021 keeps showing up

There is a cruel little subplot running through this series, and it is wearing a Rays uniform. Junior Caminero, the same young star who got run over by his own teammate, was once a little-known 18-year-old shortstop in Cleveland’s farm system. In November 2021, the Guardians sent him to Tampa Bay for right-handed pitcher Tobias Myers.

Myers never pitched in the big leagues for Cleveland. Caminero became one of the most feared young power hitters in baseball. Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti has admitted it was a bad trade, and every October the receipt gets a little longer. Caminero and former Guardian Yandy Diaz both credit the Cleveland organization for giving them their starts, and both have made a habit of making their old club pay for letting them go.

Cleveland owns a 2-1 all-time postseason record against Tampa Bay, winning the 2022 Wild Card Series after losing the 2013 Wild Card Game. But the regular season told a different story this year, and stealing Game 1 in Tampa is exactly the kind of statement a team that was left for dead two weeks ago needed to make.

What happens next

The series does not wait for anyone to catch their breath. Here is what is on deck:

• Game 2: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 8 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field, on TBS, truTV, and HBO Max. Parker Messick (12-9, 2.56 ERA) for Cleveland against Freddy Peralta (10-11, 4.42 ERA) for Tampa Bay.
• Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 15, 6 p.m. ET at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
• Game 4: Friday, Oct. 16, 6 p.m. ET in Cleveland.
• Game 5 (if necessary): Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m. ET in Cleveland.
• Games 6-7 (if necessary): back in St. Petersburg, Oct. 19 and Oct. 20.

The pitching matchup for Game 2 is worth a second look. Messick, Cleveland’s rookie left-hander, was the Guardians’ ace all season with a 2.56 ERA across 186 and a third innings, third-best in the American League among starters, though he labored in the ALDS with six walks in six and two-thirds innings. Peralta, whom the Rays acquired from the Mets before the trade deadline, posted a 3.25 ERA in ten regular-season starts for Tampa Bay and beat the Yankees in the ALDS with four and two-thirds innings of one-run ball.

And here is the part that should worry Cleveland even after a road win: the best-of-seven format gives the higher seed home-field advantage, and Tampa Bay won 98 games for a reason. The Rays had not lost a single game this postseason until Monday. One stolen game does not make a series.

But it does make things interesting. A team that trailed 0-2 in the ALDS, a franchise that traded away the other team’s best player, just walked into the Trop and took the opener. And the moment everyone is still talking about, the one that sent Jonny DeLuca’s name to the top of America’s search bar, lasted about three seconds on a foul ball that neither man caught. October baseball is never just about the score. Sometimes it is about two teammates reminding you that the most dangerous collisions are the ones you never see coming.

For more October coverage, read our recap of the Guardians’ 21-strikeout ALDS comeback, how the Rays swept the Yankees to get here, and everything else in our US Sports section.

Sources: USA Today, Reuters, NBC Sports.