RAYS vs. PHILLIES: Official Full Game Highlights (September 26) | 2026 MLB Season

And maybe the best thing to happen to the Phillies is a rain out tonight because you talk about or two. Oh, my goodness. I mean, it really is amazing. We've said this for four straight nights. If the Phillies win and the Diamondbacks lose, the Phillies clinch a playoff spot. We're saying it again tonight. Feels like it's supposed to happen. It hasn't. If the Phillies lose tonight and Arizona wins, then if both teams lose or win tomorrow, the Diamondbacks come from nowhere to grab that final playoff spot. Don Arenola threw 88 pitches on Wednesday night. Tonight, you're starting him on two days rest. What went into that decision? Felt like the best option tonight. And, you know, he's the guy that does throw a lot. He throws his bullpen. It's 40 to 50 pitches. He didn't throw yesterday. Saved it for today if we needed it. And we need it. Arenola on two days rest. 88 pitches the other day. Don Mattingly talking about how Nola throws long bullpen sessions. So, they skipped that yesterday to give Nola a chance to help the ball club today. And Diaz lifts one toward right center field. This one ticketed for the gap. A base hit for Yandy Diaz to get things going. Tonight, he heads for second base. He's safe for the leadoff double. This is what the Rays do. They don't have a ton of power, but they have gap to gap. Line drives. Put the ball in play. Two out. Runner at second. And here now is Caminero. Junior hit a ball that everyone thought was a home run off the bat yesterday. He swings and lifts one of the air deep to left. Now, the wind's gonna push it, but it doesn't matter. This one's on its way. And a two run homer for Junior Caminero. Number 42. He's got 101 runs batted in. And the Rays jump on the Phillies in the first to nothing. And I'll just keep eating my words as long as the Rays keep eating home runs. He hit it through the wind. And this time, because he pulled it a little more, instead of the homer attempt to dead center yesterday, this one cleared the left field wall. And now, Junior has hit the century mark. As Victor Mesa, Jr. stands in. Toward left center. Marshes over toward the gap. Going back, it's over his head. And one hops the wall. Marsh fires it back in, but Mesa's at second. He has a double, and the Rays are squaring up Aaron Nola. For everything that Nola gives up here in the early going, the more microscope gets put on the fact that he's pitching on two days rest after 88 pitches in his game the other night against the Brewers. Here's a swing and a fly ball into right field. Heading back is De La Cruz. Looking out, but this one is off the wall. He has to go play the cameraman right center. Mesa scores. Palacios to second with an RBI double. And the Rays have a 3-0 lead in the first. Not only a 3-0 lead, but four extra base hits. Nola working on two days rest. And this first inning has been a challenge. He's given up four hits. They're all extra base hits. Jax has been a bit stingy lately. He's got the luxury to be able to pitch aggressively with a lead in the bottom of the first. He swings and misses on a pitch out of the zone for strike three. The 3-2 pitch grounded right to Aranda in first. He'll glove and go to the bag, and that's it. 1-2-3 for Griffin Jax against the top third of the Phillies' order on one inning in. It's Rays three, Bills nothing. But he's going to the bullpen here in the second inning. A true bullpen effort will be required tonight with the Phillies already down 3-0. Tanner Banks the first call. Swing and a miss by Walsh for strike three. Diaz pops it up into center. Crawford in a few steps. He's waiting, and he's got it. Scolas, 1-2-3 inning for Tanner Banks here in the second. Here's a fly ball to right field. Liam Hicks sends it pretty deep, but the wind pushes it back, and De La Cruz makes the catch. You could see the wind just grab that ball and toss it back toward the field of play. There's the difference of the launch angle and the height of the ball, right? This ball goes straight up in the air, and now, even though that's a home run, it comes back because the wind knocks it back. Chase Shugart, the new pitcher for the Phillies. He's 87 home runs for Caminero. Don't help him here at strike three, although he wants to challenge it. Looked like a strike, though, and it is all over the plate. Swung on, and this one is sky to center. Crawford came in, now back and to his right. He's under it, and he's got it. And Shugart gets his two men, Caminero and Mesa, in a rough second half for the first time. Ball star Marsh was outstanding before the break and has fallen way off since the break. It's this ball, sharply, and through. Bays hit the first for the Phillies tonight, and then Marsh leads off here in the third. Rounds this one to short, backhand by Walz over the second one to first. Real Muto's out. It's a double play. It's about as quick as you can turn a double play on a ball that was hit really hard. Reaching out and poking it through. Crawford has a two-out single. Throw down to second is not in time. It's a stolen base for Crawford. So the Phillies have their first chance with a man in scoring position. They are one for their last 19, of course. And the pitch lined up the middle, but Walz able to get it on a backhand and throws to first in time to get him. That hit Griffin Jacks. He lined it up the middle, and it got Jacks. I didn't see where it got him. I just saw the trajectory of the ball change, and then it deflected out to Walz. That ball hit. It hit him on the backside. Might have actually got him in the back, and it might stiffen up on him. The play does go one to six to three, and the side retired. Another terrific play by Walz to get Turner a really fast runner. Kevin, that was a hard shot Griffin Jacks took. How was he coming off the mound? It's gonna hurt a little bit. I got him right in the spine, so his night's probably done. We'll go to Matts here, but Griffin looked good other than that. Steven Matts, the veteran on the mound for the Rays here in the bottom of the fourth. Swing and a miss, strike three, and Schwarber down on three pitches, lefty on lefty, and there's out number one here on the fourth. Fly ball to right. Easy play, Johnny DeLuca. Now a couple steps back. Under it, shy of the track. Boom, sky's the other way. The Bluebirds rain down, as well as the drizzle here in Philadelphia. Rays up three-nothing after four, thanks to a one-two-three from Matts. Naranda draws a walk, and the Rays have runners on first and second to start the fifth. Where the Phillies' offense has been this week, a larger deficit would be extremely difficult to come back from. Ground ball to second base. Stott goes to the second base back for the force out there. He's going to be walked intentionally with, in essence, a base open at second base. They're going to walk him. Now its base is loaded for Victor Mesa, Jr. The Phillies will go lefty on lefty here. Now Victor Mesa with a line drive, base hit. Yandy Diaz scores. Hicks will hold at third, and the Rays cash one in. Right after the intentional walk, Victor Mesa's RBI makes it four to nothing. Already four to nothing. And now five to nothing as Alvarado walks in a run. Well, this was the risk that you talked about when loading the bases, especially with Alvarado out there. And Alvarado just couldn't handle it, gave up a couple of runs. Don Mattingly's coming out of the dugout. Now it's up to Cedric Mullins to come up with a big two-out hit to add to the Rays' five-nothing advantage. Again, bases full of Rays, with Caminero the lead runner. Hit hard at the middle of base hit. Mullins delivers a big blow for the Rays. Caminero and Mesa score seven-nothing Tampa Bay. And a no good, very bad week continues for the Phillies. And this crowd, mostly silent, other than the boos that have been uttered toward the home team. They were up six and a half games on the Diamondbacks earlier this month. They were up five with eight to play. They had a four-game lead with five to go. And the Rays have two on and two out, already up seven-nothing in the sixth for Victor Mesa, Jr. And he lines a base hit to right. All the way to the wall, it goes. Yandy Diaz comes home. Caminero will be held at third. As the Rays have whacked around the Phillies tonight, it is eight to nothing. I would think, at some point, the manager, Kevin Cash, starts to replace some of these guys for the Rays. The pitch swung on, ripped into right. That's a base hit. Two runs are going to score. As De La Cruz's throw home is cut off, it's a two-run single for Palacios. And, folks, no sugarcoating it. It is all Rays tonight, and it is a massacre on this Saturday night. Rays now in front, 10 to nothing. 0-2. And it swung on, lying down the left-field line. That one is going to be a fair ball. Bounces into the corner. Stott is on his way to second. And we might have to look up the last extra base hit for the Phillies. Feels like it's been a while, but that's a double for Stott, his 33rd of the year. Here's Brandon Marsh. He's been one of the bright spots, if you want to call it that, tonight. A single and a walk. And strike three called from Rodriguez on the inside corner. So Marsh goes down looking. A walk here loads the bases, and the Phillies trying to find some life. Down by 10. Here's the 0-1. And Crawford hits one sharply, but at the second baseman who dropped it. And everybody's safe, and the Phillies have scored a run. An error by Richie Palacios on an inning-ending ground ball has given the Phillies their first run since Thursday. Here's the 3-2 again to Boehm. Hop fly, shallow center. Palacios out, it's dropping fast. Here's Mullins, goes into a dive and makes the catch. Terrific play by Mullins. The wind was not his friend there, only maybe in the fact that the wind might have pushed his back closer to the baseball. But the ball was dying fast. Cedric has played such a good center field, and there's two men retired. And Walls in the second, he gets his first hit of the night. And at second and third, one out for the Rays in the night. Here's a base hit up the middle for Ryan Valade. And that will bring home two more runs for the Rays. Walls and DeLuca to make it 12-1. That's Cole Sulcer, the oldest member of the Tampa Bay Rays, looks to get the last three outs here. Harper swings, grounds one to Aranda, backhanding, and now taking it to the bag himself, and the ball game is over. And the Rays have beaten the Phillies, and boy, did they beat them. And the Phillies will take it to game 162, hoping to still have a one-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the wildcard race, as game 161, a disaster.