Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay's "small ball" and Cleveland's “Guards Ball" vie for the American League pennant and a spot in the World Series. The starting pitchers for Game 1 are Drew Rasmussen and Foster Griffin.

Tropicana Field will host Game 1 on Monday and Game 2 on Tuesday in prime time. Games 3 and 4 are in Cleveland. The Guardians stand in the way of Tampa Bay making a third World Series appearance.

Victor Mesa Jr. hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the sixth inning as the Rays beat the Yankees 4-3 to win their AL Division Series. Tampa Bay will host the Guardians-White Sox winner in Game 1 on Monday.

The facility, slated to open early next year, will provide visualizations of the ballpark and surrounding district. Meantime, the stadium's construction manager held outreach sessions for the local trades industry.

Tampa Bay has a 2-0 lead and can close out the series Wednesday with a win at Yankee Stadium. For $5, you can watch with other fans inside Tropicana Field. Tickets are also available for a possible Game 5 in St. Petersburg.

Tampa Bay's Richie Palacios hit a two-run single in a four-run fifth inning to beat New York and its ace, Cam Schlittler. The Rays are one victory from advancing with Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.

In a few weeks, the city will decide between Ken Welch or Charlie Crist. Among the winner's bigger challenges: redevelopment of the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant Site after the Tampa Bay Rays jump to Tampa.

Tampa Bay starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen struck out 10 and didn't allow a hit until there were two outs in the eighth inning in front of a sold-out Tropicana Field crowd of 40,542, the most at the ballpark since 2010.

The Trop's 300-level is open for this "I-275 Series" opener between these two familiar division rivals. Sure, there will be lots of Yankees fans, but the Rays had an MLB-best 55-26 home record this season.

The first two games of the best-of-five matchup will be at Tropicana Field. New York advanced by sweeping AL East rival Boston in the Wild Card Series.

After spending 2025 at Steinbrenner Field, Tampa Bay had the biggest increase, up 628,255 to 1,414,975. The Trop hosted 24 games with more than 20,000 people and seven with more than 24,000.

The Rays open the AL Division Series on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Excitement is building in the area, but the hype in Tampa isn't only because the team has eyes on a World Series title.