Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
The Cleveland Guardians played the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, October 15. It was Game 3 of a big baseball series.
Cleveland won the game, 3 to 2. A player named Petey Halpin hit a home run in the fifth inning. It scored two runs.
Now Cleveland leads the series two games to one. The game started early because rain was coming.
- series
- a group of games between two teams
- inning
- one part of a baseball game
- home run
- a hit that lets the batter run around all the bases
- lead
- to be ahead
- rain
- water that falls from clouds
- score
- to get points
- win
- to finish ahead of the other team
- started
- began
Level 2 - Elementary
On Thursday, October 15, the Cleveland Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3 to 2 in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The game was played at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Petey Halpin hit a two run home run in the fifth inning, and that hit gave Cleveland the lead it needed. The Guardians now lead the best of seven series two games to one.
Because of a rain forecast, Major League Baseball moved the first pitch earlier, to 1 p.m. Eastern time. The series was tied one to one after the Rays won Game 2 by 3 to 1 on Tuesday.
- championship
- a contest to find the best team
- league
- a group of teams that play each other
- forecast
- a prediction about the weather
- first pitch
- the start of a baseball game
- tied
- with the same score
- best of seven
- the first team to win four games wins
- moved
- changed to a different time
- pennant
- the prize for winning a league
Level 3 - Intermediate
The Cleveland Guardians edged the Tampa Bay Rays 3 to 2 in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday at Progressive Field, taking a two games to one lead. Petey Halpin's two run home run in the fifth inning supplied the winning margin.
The contest had been brought forward because of forecast rain. Major League Baseball announced on Wednesday that first pitch would be at 1 p.m. Eastern instead of the original evening slot, and the National League Championship Series Game 4 was also moved an hour earlier. Cleveland had come in tied after the Rays took Game 2 on Tuesday, 3 to 1, behind six scoreless innings from starter Peralta.
Elsewhere, the Milwaukee Brewers held a three games to none lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League series going into Game 4 on Thursday, with the Dodgers facing elimination. A single pitch can swing a series, which is why managers and fans treat every game of a best of seven as decisive.
- edge
- to win by a small margin
- margin
- the difference between winning and losing scores
- brought forward
- moved to an earlier time
- scoreless
- with no points allowed
- elimination
- being knocked out of a competition
- decisive
- deciding the result
- starter
- the pitcher who begins the game
- supply
- to provide
Level 4 - Advanced
The Cleveland Guardians prised a 3 to 2 victory from the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday, reclaiming a series lead, two games to one, at Progressive Field. Petey Halpin's two run homer in the fifth inning proved the difference in a game that offered little margin for error.
The scheduling itself made news. Anticipating rain, Major League Baseball advanced first pitch to 1 p.m. Eastern, and shifted National League Game 4 an hour earlier as a corollary. The disruption mattered less than the momentum: Tampa Bay had levelled the series on Tuesday with a 3 to 1 win in which Peralta pitched six scoreless innings and Cleveland squandered chances after a defensive lapse had gifted the Rays unearned runs.
In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers arrived at Game 4 holding a commanding three games to none advantage over a Dodgers team whose season hung by a thread, the sort of position from which comebacks are rare but not unknown. Postseason baseball compresses a year of effort into a handful of games, and as Thursday showed, a single swing can decide which side the pendulum favours.
- prise
- to obtain with effort
- corollary
- a consequence that follows
- level
- to make the score or series equal
- squander
- to waste an opportunity
- lapse
- a brief failure of attention
- commanding
- strongly dominant
- compress
- to squeeze into a smaller space
- pendulum
- a swinging weight, used here for shifting momentum
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