Yandy Díaz Homer Seals Rays Win, ALCS Tied 2-2

Yandy Díaz slammed the door in the ninth. His two-run shot to the opposite field off Matt Festa capped a 7-3 Rays win over the Guardians on Saturday night at Progressive Field, and the ALCS is now tied 2-2.

That swing turns this series into a best-of-three. It also guarantees the Rays a Game 6 back home at Tropicana Field on Monday, which is exactly where the top team in the American League wanted to steer this thing after falling behind.

Caminero finally breaks through

Game 4 got pushed back a day by Friday's rain, and for five innings it looked like another tight, cold grind. Chase DeLauter put Cleveland up early with an RBI single in the first. Then Junior Caminero went to work.

Caminero had already been robbed once. He crushed a deep fly to the base of the wall in center that Petey Halpin hauled in, a ball MLB.com noted was the 265th batted ball tracked by Statcast at that exit velocity and launch angle window, and the only one of them that was not a home run. In the sixth he made up for it with a 110.2 mph double into the left field corner over a leaping José Ramírez, putting the Rays ahead 2-1.

"You asked me the last game about the four strikeouts, and look at today," Caminero said. "That's about the baseball."

The Rays tacked on three in the seventh. Jonathan Aranda, who drove in two on the night, lined an RBI single that brought home a second run when DeLauter let the ball slip under his glove in the outfield.

Martinez sets the tone, Guards push back

Nick Martinez had thrown 13 scoreless innings against Cleveland this season, and he stayed in control again, working 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Freddy Peralta, dominant in Game 2, came on in relief.

Cleveland did not go quietly. Travis Bazzana homered and Brayan Rocchio added an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to cut it to 5-3. Steven Kwan busted his lip sliding into first trying to keep that inning alive and came back out with gauze in his mouth. That is the kind of series this is.

Then Díaz took the drama out of it in the ninth.

"It was just a matter of time for us three to get going," Aranda said through interpreter Kevin Vera. "Job's not done."

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt was not panicking either. "We still have a three-game series ahead of us against a really good team," he said. "I anticipate it going down to the wire."

Game 5 is Sunday in Cleveland

Game 5 is Sunday at Progressive Field at 5:08 p.m. ET, with Parker Messick starting for the Guardians and Drew Rasmussen going for the Rays. Per MLB.com, the Game 5 winner in a best-of-seven tied 2-2 has gone on to take the series 46 of 69 times.

If you are building a pick'em card, the top of this Rays order just woke up at the right time.

Cleveland has already climbed out of an 0-2 hole against the White Sox this October, so nobody in that dugout is blinking. Both teams sit two wins from the World Series, and one more night in the Cleveland cold decides who flies to St. Petersburg needing just one.