Rays beat Yankees 4-3 for 3-game
Division Series sweep behind Mesa homer, fan interference call
[October 08, 2026]
By RONALD BLUM
NEW YORK (AP) — Victor Mesa Jr. didn't bother to watch his home run
land in Yankee Stadium's right-field seats, instead turning to his
Tampa Bay teammates in the third base dugout.
Rays manager Kevin Cash waved an arm and pointed toward first base,
urging Mesa to start the type of trot the 25-year-old yearned of
when he defected from Cuba in 2018.
“That’s the moment that you want to live when you’re growing up,”
Mesa said after his tiebreaking, two-run homer off Max Fried in the
sixth inning lifted Tampa Bay over the New York Yankees 4-3 on
Wednesday night for a three-game sweep of their AL Division Series.
Ryan Vilade also homered for the Rays, who got help from a fan
interference call and reached the American League Championship
Series for the first time since 2020. They host the Chicago White
Sox or Cleveland Guardians in the opener on Monday.
“We’re a bunch of dogs,” Vilade said. “We don’t care who’s on the
other side. We’re going to go out and compete and do our thing.”
Mesa, 25, was designated for assignment by Miami just ahead of
spring training, then traded to the Rays.
“Look where I am now," he said.
Cash had worried when Mesa lingered at home plate.
“The last thing we need to do is ignite a really great team over
there,” the manager said of the Yankees. “I get the emotions and the
excitement and that was probably the biggest home run he’s ever hit
in his life, so I totally appreciate how you want to enjoy that. In
today’s game, there's a fine line of what’s OK and what’s not.”
A son of former Cuba player and national team manager Victor Mesa,
Victor Jr. was 16 when he left Cuba along with his older brother,
Victor Victor Mesa. Both signed with the Miami Marlins and the older
brother didn't advance past Triple-A.
“When we defect(ed), we knew that we wanted to live moments like
this," Victor Mesa Jr. said. “I want to thank him because he’s a big
part of why I’m here.”
Vilade, 27, is with his sixth major league organization and got
extensive big league playing time for the first time this season.
“Last year I was in Memphis and sleeping on an Amazon — or a Walmart
bed,” he said of his stint with St. Louis' Triple-A farm team. “And
this year I’m here and get to go to the ALCS and compete with my
guys.”
After Mesa's homer gave the Rays a 4-2 lead, Anthony Volpe appeared
to hit a two-run shot against Griffin Jax with two outs in the
bottom half as a fan reached over the left-field wall and caught the
ball over the glove of a leaping Mesa.
A video review by replay umpire Malachi Moore determined the ball
would not have been over the wall and would not have been caught by
Mesa. Volpe was awarded an RBI double and George Lombard Jr. was
allowed to score from first base. Jax recovered to strike out
Spencer Jones.
Baseball's embrace of video technology was key to the inning.
Lombard reached with a one-out walk when a 3-1 pitch called a strike
by plate umpire Dan Bellino was ruled inside on an ABS challenge.
Austin Wells then walked on full-count changeup but an ABS challenge
by Rays catcher Liam Hicks ruled the pitch caught the inside corner
for a strikeout, bringing up Volpe.
Quite a change from 1996, when umpires did not have replays to
assist and Derek Jeter's homer for the Yankees helped turn around
the ALCS opener despite young fan Jeffrey Meier reaching over the
right-field wall where Baltimore's Tony Tarasco was set to catch the
ball. MLB began using video for home run calls in 2008 and allowed
challenges to ball/strike decisions starting this year.
Junior Caminero singled ahead of Mesa's homer on a sweeper, the
first longball Fried allowed to a left-handed hitter since August
2025.
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The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate the team's win in Game 3 of baseball's
American League Division Series against the New York Yankees,
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“We played a good game and did enough to win and
unfortunately I didn’t do enough to hold up my end of the bargain,"
Fried said.
Ian Seymour pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Kevin Kelly struck
out pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to strand a runner in the eighth.
Bryan Baker pitched the ninth, striking out Trent Grisham with a
runner at second to become the first pitcher with three saves and no
hits allowed in a three-game postseason sweep.
"We’re going to have to bring it in the ALCS and keep playing our
type of baseball,” Baker said.
Seeking its first World Series title, Tampa Bay celebrated on the
field of the big-spending Yankees for the second time in two weeks
after clinching the AL East on Sept. 22. New York opened the season
with MLB's third-highest payroll at $303 million while the Rays were
26th at $91 million.
Swept in a best-of-five postseason matchup for the first time since
the 1980 ALCS against Kansas City, the Yankees ended their 17th
straight season without a World Series crown. That equaled their
longest drought since winning their first championship in 1923, a
gap between titles in 1978 and '96.
“The ending is terrible,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a broken
clubhouse.”
Yankees captain Aaron Judge missed the postseason after straining a
calf on Sept. 16. The three-time AL MVP played just seven games
after May 31 because of a fractured rib and the leg injury, an
absence the team couldn't overcome. New York batted .130 in the
series and was outscored 10-5.
“There’s a standard to win a championship, and it’s black and
white," Judge said. "There’s no gray area."
After sweeping Boston in the Wild Card Series, New York never led
against the Rays and has not advanced past a higher-seeded team in
the postseason since 2020.
“This is my fourth season. It’s been far too many times having this
taste in your mouth,” Volpe said. “There’s too many chips added to
your shoulder that it just feels like enough’s enough.”
Jonathan Aranda put the Rays ahead with an RBI single in the third
and Ben Rice tied the score against Nick Martinez with a single in
the bottom half, his eighth RBI of the postseason.
Vilade's opposite-field, 340-foot drive in the fourth landed just
over the right-field short porch. The ball, just over the glove of a
jumping Jones, would not have been out of any other big league
ballpark.
Volpe, starting at second base in place of Jazz Chisholm Jr., hit a
96.6 mph liner off Martinez’s back with two outs in the fourth for
an infield single, and Seymour relieved. Jones’ opposite-field
double landed beyond Mesa, driving in Volpe.
The Yankees left the ballpark dejected.
“We didn’t meet the expectations of the fans and this organization,"
ace Cam Schlittler said. “There’s a certain standard of being a
Yankee and we didn’t fulfill that.”
Up next
Tampa Bay gets four days off and will have played just three games
in 14 days before starting the ALCS.
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