Rays add to day of victories, top Padres thanks to wild 4th inning

Eduardo A. Encina, Tampa Bay Times on Aug 28, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays entered their three-game home interleague series with the Padres tied with San Diego — and Boston — for the major league’s best record since July 20.

At Tropicana Field on Friday night, the Rays broke open a tight game by taking advantage of several Padres miscues that led to a five-run fourth inning.

On a day in which the biggest news happened off the field — hours before, Hillsborough County Commissioners green-lighted the Rays’ plan for a $2.3 billion stadium, overcoming the biggest hurdle in moving the team from St. Petersburg to Tampa — Tampa Bay continued its dog-day push with a 9-4 win over San Diego in front of 16,470 fans.

After the bottom of the third inning, a video montage of the Rays ownership group’s push to build the organization’s “forever home” played, complete with play-by-play of Friday’s 5-2 vote. Rays CEO Ken Babby stood on the home dugout between innings and helped throw out T-shirts to fans in attendance.

Shortly after that, the Rays were opportunistic in taking control of the game, thanks to a Padres unraveling, propelling their way to their fourth win in the last five games to open a six-game homestand against a pair of NL opponents; the Mets follow the Padres.

Friday was the first time in eight games in which the Rays scored more than five runs.

Yandy Diaz gave Tampa Bay an early lead with an opposite-field solo homer in the third that cleared the right-field fence; it was his 20th homer of the season. The blast also put Diaz in sole possession of fifth place on the Rays’ all-time home-run list with 119, passing B.J. Upton. And he took over fourth place on the franchise’s all-time RBI list, passing Carlos Peña with 469 RBIs.

An early pitching duel between Rays lefty Shane McClanahan and San Diego right-hander Casey Mize got interesting in the bottom of the fourth. Tampa Bay scored its first two runs without hitting a ball out of the infield.

Mize hit leadoff hitter Junior Caminero on the left elbow, and two batters later, Mize fielded a comebacker off the bat of Chandler Simpson, but botched the throw to second, sending Caminero to third. After Simpson swiped second for his 36th steal of the season, Mize walked Jonny DeLuca to load the bases.

Cedric Mullins hit a roller to first baseman Ty France, who bobbled the ball coming up the line, leaving him with no play and allowing Caminero to score. With Jorge Mateo at the plate, Mize then threw a wild pitch that skipped high into the air and allowed Simpson to score.

Mateo’s sacrifice fly plated DeLuca for the third run of the inning, and run-scoring singled by Taylor Walls and Diaz completed the five-spot in the fourth and give the Rays a 6-0 lead.

McClanahan was one out from qualifying for his first quality start since June 8, but was chased from the game after Jackson Merrill’s two-run homer with two outs in the sixth made it a 7-4 game.

Still, McClanahan’s 5 2/3-inning outing was his longest since that 6 1/3-inning, zero-run outing against the Yankees on June 8. His 80 pitches Friday night were the most he’s thrown in three outings since returning from back stiffness that shelved him for two weeks.

McClanahan retired 12 of the first 13 batters he faced Friday night, before allowing two runs in the top of the fifth. McClanahan (10-6) got his first win since July 24 versus Cleveland (four starts).

The Padres had the tying run in the on-deck circle down 8-4 with two outs int he seventh, but right-handed reliever Kevin Kelly came on and stranded runners at the corners. Mullins then hit a solo homer to right field in the bottom of the inning to give the Rays a five-run cushion again. Mullins’ homer, his 14th of the season, was challenged by the Padres because a fan caught it at the railing, but ultimately upheld.