Rays gutsy Game 4 World Series win shows why Guardians need to stick to their changing platoon approach

The Rays may not win the 2026 World Series, but it looks like they’re not going to go out without a fight. After dropping the first three games of the series, Tampa Bay was down to its final three outs of the season after Cooper Pratt gave the Brewers the lead with a solo home run in the top of the 12th inning. It looked like their season had reached the end of the road. 

But then the Rays came back to win thanks to some unheralded players on their roster. While slugger Junior Caminero was in the middle of it after he reached on an error from Joey Ortiz, guys like Jonny DeLuca, Cedric Mullins and Ben Williamson all played a part in helping the Rays score two runs in the twelfth inning. 

That kind of “all hands on deck” approach may seem similar to the Guardians’ platoon approach, but there’s one clear difference: Kevin Cash had a full stable of guys to go in extra innings. 

While Cash burned everyone on his bench, all but one of their substitutions came in extra innings, which has us thinking about the way the Guardians use their roster. 

The Guardians should try to copy the way the Rays used their bench in Game 4 of World Series

The Guardians clearly love a platoon advantage as much as the next team, but their dedication to having that advantage can sometimes put them behind the utility eight-ball late in the game. While that wasn’t as bad this season (largely because of the fact the Guardians had actual hitters on their roster), it was hard to watch Cash’s masterclass and not think back to the 2025 Wild Card Series. 

Not only did the Guardians open that series with a dismal lineup that featured Jhonkensy Noel and Johnathan Rodríguez, but it had five late-game substitutions in a 2-1 loss. Vogt and the Guardians would have been in trouble had that game gone into extras. 

Now that’s a bit of a different situation since the Guardians were playing from behind in that game whereas the Rays were tied in their matchup with the Brewers, but Cash showed why it’s important to keep your bench full in extras. 

Cash’s first substitution came in the eleventh inning when he pulled Yandy Díaz for pinch-runner Jorge Mateo, who stole a base but was stranded. That paled in comparison to the twelfth inning when he pulled Caminero for pinch-runner Cedric Mullins after Caminero made it to third on a Liam Hicks single. Mullins came in to score on a single from DeLuca. 

The Rays won the game two batters later when Ben Williamson (a pinch-runner) drove in Nick Fortes (a pinch-runner) with a single that chopped near the plate and ended up in shallow right field. Williamson, Mullins and Fortes may have entered the game with a combined 10 at-bats in the World Series, but they were the catalysts for Tuesday’s huge win. 

Every game is different, but the Guardians’ roster usage this postseason made it seem like their usage would have put them in a position to pull off the same kind of substitutions that Cash made in Game 4. 

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