The Rays closed out the 2026 regular season with a 7-3 loss to the Phillies, but the result came with very different stakes on each side. Tampa Bay had already locked everything up and entered the day with 98 wins, while Philadelphia still had its season on the line and needed a victory to keep from watching a nearly historic collapse become reality.
For the Rays, this was more of a final tune-up than a meaningful game. The club now gets six days off before seeing the field again, a reward for piling up enough wins to secure extra rest. The Phillies, meanwhile, came in desperate after being beaten badly the day before by the class of the American League, and they looked far more urgent on this rainy Sunday.
Nick Martinez got the start in what served as a final regular-season curtain call after an excellent year. He wasn’t at his sharpest, and the sloppy conditions didn’t help.
Tampa Bay had a couple of outfield chances that Mesa and DeLuca couldn’t finish, and a few liners dropped in just fair enough to keep the Phillies moving. Martinez worked 50 pitches before leaving with a line of 2.2 innings, seven hits and four earned runs.
Ian Seymour entered and cleaned up the mess Martinez left behind, getting out of the runners-on-second-and-third situation by beating out Carl Crawford’s son to first on a groundout. After that, the Rays turned to newly promoted Jesse Scholtens to finish out the afternoon and soak up innings in the final stanza of the 2026 pitching run.
Tampa Bay’s offense had its own issues, finishing 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Still, the Rays avoided the shutout thanks to Johnny DeLuca, who launched solo home runs over both the left-field and right-field walls.
One more note from the finale: Junior Caminero started at third base, just as he did all season long. That kind of durability stands out in today’s game, especially without any DH time and with every game on the card.
Caminero backed up his breakout with another monster year, going over 40 homers and 100 RBI again, while also taking on the defensive work that used to get him lifted late. He didn’t resist the challenge or act entitled to anything; he put in the work and became a player the Rays can trust.
Now he’s headed into his first real October, along with the rest of a Rays team that spent the regular season giving fans plenty to remember. Walkoffs, filthy pitching, sharp defense, and a whole lot of good vibes carried Tampa Bay through the year. What happens next is the part that lasts.
In Other News...
Rays Earned The October Setup Fans Have Been Waiting On
The Rays closed the regular season at 98-64 and walked away with the American Leagues best record, a finish that puts them in the cleanest possible October position. Even after dropping their final game to the Phillies, Tampa Bay secured the No. 1 seed in the AL bracket and earned a path that keeps the focus right where it should be heading into the postseason at Tropicana Field.
Now the waiting begins. Tampa Bay opens the American League Division Series on Saturday against the winner of the Wild Card Series between the Yankees and Red Sox, giving the Rays a few days to reset while the rest of the bracket sorts itself out. For a club that spent six months building toward this, the setup is exactly what it wanted, even if the opponent still has one more round to reveal itself. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Are Suddenly Facing Their Biggest October Test Yet
The Rays have spent enough recent Octobers proving they belong in the postseason conversation, and now they find themselves back in the mix of preseason chatter as theScores editors sort through their 2026 playoff predictions. Alongside familiar heavyweights like the Yankees, Brewers and Dodgers, Tampa Bay is getting attention for the consistency and edge that have made it one of the more reliable playoff bets in the league, even as those kinds of projections always come with a healthy dose of uncertainty.
Still, the real intrigue around the Rays is how much of this confidence rests on what theyve already shown versus what they still have to prove when the games get tighter. The regular season can make a strong case, and recent playoff history helps explain why evaluators keep circling Tampa Bay, but October has a way of turning those comfortable assumptions into something far less certain. [Read more 🡒]