Tampa just keeps finding ways to win games.
Tuesday’s 1-0 victory wasn’t pretty — mostly if you’re Junior Caminero — but the Rays pulled it out in the end. That means Tampa is riding a six-game winning streak coming into Wednesday’s afternoon affair with the Guardians. It also means the Rays are looking for a sweep.
Can Cleveland avoid the brooms? Let’s preview this matinee matchup and make a couple picks on the DraftKings Sportsbook.
Rays vs. Guardians prediction, preview
Neither might register as a household name, but we have ourselves a battle of aces on Wednesday in Cleveland.
Drew Rasmussen will toe the rubber for the Rays. I think the thing that’s oddest about the right-hander’s incredible performance in 2026 is that Rasmussen has basically been doing the exact same thing for half a decade, and no one outside Tampa’s organization really cares. To wit, Rasmussen sports a 2.77 ERA since the beginning of 2021. Among pitchers with at least 400 innings thrown in that span of time, only Jacob deGrom (2.42) and Shohei Ohtani (2.71) have a better mark. That’s right. By ERA, Rasmussen’s been better than Max Fried, Chris Sale, Zack Wheeler and Tarik Skubal — for the past five years, no less. That’s why I’m not all that shocked that the veteran owns a 2.45 ERA and a 2.64 xERA in his 25.2 innings of work this season. It’s simply what he does when healthy.
On the other side of this matchup, we find Gavin Williams and his 3.28 ERA. Last week, I wrote that Williams was due for a little bit of regression, and that happened in his last start in Toronto, with the RHP surrendering six earned runs in six innings of action. The red flags with Williams are two-fold. First and foremost, his 13.4% walk rate is the second-highest qualified mark in the league. Secondly, his fourth percentile opponent barrel rate (16.5%) opens the door for a lot of loud contact and extra base hits. All that said, Williams does do the one thing that sort of negates all the warning signs: He strikes out batters at an elite clip. The 26-year-old has punched out over 11 opponents per nine so far in 2026, with his 31.0% strikeout rate sitting in the 90th percentile of MLB. You don’t love the combination of walks and barrels, but a couple whiffs can get you out of almost any jam.
Specific to today, this might actually be a perfect matchup for Williams, especially if the aforementioned Caminero is unable to play after leaving Tuesday’s contest with a jaw issue. Despite the team’s overall success, Tampa sits dead-last in baseball in barrels by a pretty wide margin (37). Now factor in that 10 of those 37 have come off the bat of Caminero — easily the most on the Rays. If he’s not in there, this lineup has next to zero pop. Remember, overall, Tampa comes into Wednesday’s action ranking 24th in ISO (.132) and 22nd in expected wOBA (.312). It’s quite underwhelming.
Rays vs. Guardians pick, best bet
Best Bet: Under 6.5 (-108)
I know. It’s a super-low total. However, these two starters are quite accomplished, and the potential absence of Caminero (jaw) looms large. There’s also the Cleveland side of this. The Guardians have dropped five of their last six and are averaging only 2.5 runs per contest in that span.
