Rays celebrate in New York again with sweep of Yankees, advance to ALCS

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 7, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Getting to pop bottles and celebrate in the Yankee Stadium visitors’ clubhouse for the second time in 15 days was quite exciting for the Rays after Wednesday’s 4-3 American League Division Series-clinching win.

Even better is that they’re now four wins from going to the World Series.

In sweeping the Yankees, the Rays advanced to the AL Championship Series against either the White Sox or Guardians, with Games 1 and 2 Monday and Tuesday at Tropicana Field. Cleveland won earlier Wednesday but still trails 2-1 with Game 4 on Thursday in Chicago.

This will be the third time the Rays have reached the ALCS. Both times previously, against Boston in 2008 and Houston in 2020, they went on to the World Series, though they have yet to celebrate the ultimate final out.

The Rays won Wednesday, as in many of their first 100 victories, with a team effort.

Ryan Vilade, in his first postseason appearance over a 10-year pro career, homered in the fourth. Victor Mesa Jr. hit a two-run blast, that he took some time to admire, in the sixth. Jonathan Aranda singled in the first run in a left-on-left at-bat against Yankees starter Max Fried.

Nick Martinez gave the Rays a solid outing into the fourth, with two other starters-turned-relievers for this round, Ian Seymour and Griffin Jax, combining for the next 10 outs. Cam Booser, Kevin Kelly and Bryan Baker all contributed late.

After the Rays took a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth on Mesa’s homer, there was some drama and controversy in the bottom of the inning.

With two outs and George Lombard Jr. on first, Anthony Volpe drove a ball to the left-field wall. Mesa leapt to attempt a catch but was adamant the ball was touched by a fan.

Replay review confirmed that it was, but the replay official determined that since the ball would not have gone over the wall or been caught, that Lombard would score, cutting the lead to 4-3, and Volpe would be placed at second.

But Jax made that a moot point, striking out Spencer Jones to end the inning.

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