The Cleveland Guardians wrested early control of the American League Championship Series from the favored Tampa Bay Rays on the road Monday night, capturing Game 1, 7-3. The Guardians fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, but their bats came alive in the final four frames to plate seven runs and surge ahead for the victory.
One of the key plays in Cleveland’s rally came in the seventh inning, when Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey walloped a 436-foot home run to centerfield off Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen. Bailey’s blast tied the contest at 2-2, Rasmussen was soon pulled, and the rout was on.
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Patrick Bailey ties this one up for Cleveland!pic.twitter.com/e4Tkimw9Fl
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 13, 2026
Cleveland would not trail from that point on, adding two more in the eighth before the Rays hit a one-run homer in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 4-3. Yet the Guardians immediately responded with three more runs in the ninth to provide the final score.
“We’re having so much fun,” Bailey said with a smile in an on-field interview after the final out. “Fun is just the word that comes to mind. We’re settling in. This has been awesome. It’s been awesome.”
Bailey’s home run was his second in three games; he also homered in the fifth inning of a win-or-go-home Game 4 in the ALDS against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.
In addition to helping Cleveland’s elite pitching staff with his work behind the plate, Bailey is leading his team (among those with more than two at-bats) with a .368 postseason batting average through six games, which mark his first trip to the MLB playoffs. The Greensboro, North Carolina, native is a career .225 hitter, but his newfound offensive production is a welcome sight for the AL Central champs. They’ve won their last four games and are getting hot at just the right time.
Bailey was drafted in the first round by the San Francisco Giants out of N.C. State in 2020, and he made his MLB debut with the team in May 2023. The 27-year-old spent three full seasons in San Francisco, winning two Gold Gloves (2024, ’25) before being traded to Cleveland in May of this season.
In March, just a couple of months before that trade, Bailey joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast to talk about baseball, Jesus and the challenge it’s been to find his identity in the latter.
“That’s kind of something God’s been hammering in my heart right now, like, ‘Anything outside of you being My child is not your identity,'” he said on the podcast. “We’ve got 40,000 people watching us every night, and there’s some good, and there’s some bad. It’s definitely very easy to kind of fall into that trap of seeing my self-worth in what I do. And again, obviously, baseball is a gift and it’s a platform that I can serve Jesus and serve others on, but it can very quickly become that idol that I think it’s just so easy to get to.”
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Bailey describes himself as a “believer” and lists the Bible passage Matthew 5:14-16 in his Instagram bio. He said on the podcast that he grew up attending church, but he truly began to discover what it means to follow Christ during high school. In the majors, he’s been spotted wearing a T-shirt with the popular phrase “Jesus Won” on the front.
“Jesus has won the battle. Hell has been defeated. Death has been defeated,” Bailey said on the podcast. “He rose again on the third day and is sitting at the right hand next to God the Father. That’s what I’m trying to put my hope in towards tomorrow.”
With his ultimate hope resting in the firm foundation of Christ, Bailey and his Guardians teammates also hope to continue the momentum from their rousing victory in Game 1. They will be back on the diamond on Tuesday night for Game 2, seeking to steal another win on the road. First pitch is set for 8 p.m. ET.
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