Major League Baseball's (MLB) Tampa Bay Rays have advanced to the World Series for the first time in six years.

On October 20 (Korean time), the Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series (ALCS, best-of-seven) at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

By beating Cleveland 4 games to 2, Tampa Bay claimed the American League pennant for the first time in six years and advanced to the World Series (best-of-seven), where they will face the National League champion Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 at American Family Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 24 at 9:00 AM.

As a result, this year's World Series will be a showdown between two teams that have never won a World Series title before.

Furthermore, whichever team wins, it will continue the legacy of small-market team championships for the first time in 11 years, following the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

Milwaukee is seeking its first World Series title 58 years after its founding in 1969, while Tampa Bay is aiming for its first title 29 years after its founding in 1998.

Tampa Bay previously won the American League pennant twice, in 2008 and 2020, but fell short of the World Series trophy after being blocked by the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively.

Cleveland, which has not won a World Series for 78 years—the longest championship drought among the 30 big league teams since celebrating its last title in 1948—took a 2-1 lead in this year's ALCS before losing three straight games, failing once again to fulfill its long-cherished dream.

In a scoreless second inning, Tampa Bay capitalized with two outs and runners on second and third, manufactured through hits, a walk, and two stolen bases, when Richie Palacios hit a two-run double into the right-center gap to open the scoring.

In the third inning, with one out and the bases loaded, Johnny DeLuca hit a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0.

After Cleveland clawed a run back in the sixth inning, Tampa Bay pulled further ahead in the bottom of the seventh when Junior Caminero smashed a two-run homer off the left-field foul pole.

Leading 5-3 in the eighth, Yandy Díaz capped off the league championship victory with a two-run home run over the left-field wall.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)