Rays' most exciting 'W' of '26? DeLuca's 9th-frame HR sets tone for walk-off in 11th

ST. PETERSBURG -- Jonny DeLuca rounded the bases, touched home plate and still wasn’t sure what had just happened.

Can you really blame him? Much like this unexpectedly excellent Rays season as a whole, what took place in the final frames of their 5-4 extra-innings win over the Padres on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field defied logic and any sort of reasonable explanation.

“That’s probably the most exciting one we've had this year,” starter Drew Rasmussen said.

With the Rays down by two runs, Junior Caminero on first base and two outs in the ninth inning, DeLuca stepped into the batter’s box against the untouchable Mason Miller and launched a fly ball to the left-field corner. Samad Taylor followed the ball to the warning track, extended his glove and seemed to snag it for the final out.

Game over? Not yet.

Taylor’s momentum carried him into the lower portion of the wall, the space that was originally cut down so Carl Crawford could more easily rob home runs and most famously made Evan Longoria’s Game 162 home run possible. As Taylor crashed into the fence, the ball fell out of his glove and landed on the other side for a game-tying homer.

“Obviously,” DeLuca said, “I love that wall.”

Game over? Caminero thought so.

“I said, 'Are you kidding me?'” he said afterward. “I said, 'Oh, the game's over right there. The game's over. We're winning no matter what.'”

That proved to be prophetic two innings later. Tampa Bay capitalized on its second chance in the 11th, when Jorge Mateo lined a walk-off single over Taylor’s head to finish another crazy victory over the Padres that sealed the American League-best Rays’ MLB-leading and franchise record-tying 14th sweep of the season.

“The guys are pumped right now,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Rightfully so.”

“This is a series we can point to and tell our guys who haven't experienced postseason baseball, 'Every day is like this,’” Rasmussen added. “It's a roller-coaster ride. Games are close, and you win on the margins.”

In this case, they won on the unlikeliest of those margins.

Only two players had accomplished the difficult task of hitting a home run against Miller between the time he first put on a Padres uniform last August and when he scaled the mound to pitch the ninth inning with a 3-1 lead on Sunday. The Padres were 59-0 when leading after eight innings this season, and the Rays were only 2-48 when trailing after eight.

And Tampa Bay’s lineup had been quiet since Junior Caminero launched his 37th home run of the season -- tying Yordan Alvarez for the AL lead -- off lefty Robbie Ray in the fourth inning.

But Caminero gave his team a chance by knocking a leadoff single to center. Two outs later, DeLuca came to the plate. What looked like a routine flyout at the warning track turned out to be anything but that. Taylor’s momentum carried him another half-step into the wall, and he couldn’t keep the ball in his outstretched glove.

“I don't think I've ever seen it before,” Rasmussen said. “It's one of those plays we'll look back on at the end of the year and probably just be grateful for the moment, in all honesty, because it definitely led to a really, really cool conclusion to the game.”

In the dugout, Cash said he only knew the ball was out when “everybody started yelling at me, telling me it went over.” In the on-deck circle, Mateo saw Miller walking off the mound and figured it was caught -- until he saw the umpires signaling it was a home run.

“I don't know if it goes down as an error in the books, but in my mind, it's an error,” Taylor told reporters. “It hit my glove and should be caught.”

DeLuca and Taylor immediately reacted in disbelief, albeit at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. DeLuca looked back at the Rays’ dugout and grinned widely as he rounded the bases, while Taylor put his hands on his knees and bent over, looking down at the Trop’s turf.

“You don't want it to end that way and you always want to be the hero in that situation,” DeLuca said. “So, a pretty drastic change after that. Just very blessed that it went over.”

He was blessed again in the 11th inning, after the teams traded zeroes in the 10th and the Padres pushed across the automatic runner on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.

Facing right-hander David Morgan, Liam Hicks hit a single to center that moved pinch-runner Richie Palacios to third. Pinch-running catcher Kenny Piper promptly stole second, at which point the Padres intentionally walked Chandler Simpson to bring up DeLuca with the bases loaded.

With San Diego’s infield drawn in, DeLuca hit a bouncer to shortstop Xander Bogaerts. But Bogaerts bobbled the ball, allowing Palacios to score as DeLuca trotted to first and Mateo stepped up to the plate. Two pitches later, Mateo ripped a line drive to left field -- his first career walk-off hit -- and found himself celebrating an unbelievable, unexpected win.

“It feels great,” Mateo said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “I wish that it was like that every single day.”