NEW YORK — Down 2-0 in the best-of-five ALDS to the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees were counting on their home crowd to provide the necessary boost to help them climb back into the series. In the sixth inning of Game 3 on Wednesday, the Bronx crowd tried to give their beloved ballclub a helping hand — literally. Unfortunately, that gesture fell beyond the regulated boundaries of home-field advantage.
Anthony Volpe — inserted into the starting lineup in place of Jazz Chisholm Jr. with manager Aaron Boone seeking a spark for his morose offense — strolled to the plate against Rays right-hander Griffin Jax with two outs and the Yankees down 4-2. Volpe represented the tying run, with rookie George Lombard Jr. on first after drawing a walk. When Jax fired a 96-mph sinker inside on a 1-0 count, Volpe lifted the ball with force, sending it soaring into the New York sky at a 42-degree launch angle. On contact, it looked like a harmless flyout to end the inning. But the ball stayed almost stuck in the air, willed by the eager crowd to float toward the seats.
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Rays left fielder Victor Mesa Jr. drifted back, tracking the ball’s descent. But as he leapt to try to snag the ball, a pair of Yankees fans just above the fence reached over and interrupted his attempt. The ball clanged off their hands and hopped the fence for what initially appeared to be the game-tying, two-run blast the home crowd was hoping for — until replay review revealed a less-flattering reality.
Home plate umpire and crew chief Dan Bellino announced to the sellout crowd of 48,865 what was blatantly obvious to anyone watching at home, with the benefit of multiple camera angles: It was spectator interference, and the ball would not have cleared the wall without assistance.
It was ruled a double rather than an out, with the replay center determining that Mesa would not have caught the ball, but Lombard would have scored from first. Volpe, having rounded the bases and returned to a tunnel of high-fives in the rejuvenated Yankees dugout, sheepishly sauntered back to second base. Jax then struck out Spencer Jones on three pitches to end the inning.
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A tie game it was not. The Yankees had cut the Rays’ lead to one, but had more work to do if they wanted to extend their season another day.
Another run never arrived. The 4-4 score that lingered for a few minutes on the giant Yankee Stadium video board never came to fruition. The corrected tally, 4-3, stayed intact for the final three frames of the ballgame. As a result, the Rays completed their sweep of the Yankees in fitting fashion: with contributions from a potpourri of unheralded players who are thriving with Tampa Bay after flying under the radar elsewhere.
Coming off the franchise’s worst campaign in nearly a decade — 77 wins and a fourth-place finish in the AL East — the Rays spent this past offseason shaking up their roster. The bulk of the headlines Tampa Bay made with its transactional activity involved notable subtractions, rather than additions. Longtime closer Pete Fairbanks departed in free agency. Brandon Lowe, the team’s longest tenured player, was traded to Pittsburgh. Rotation mainstay Shane Baz was dealt to Baltimore. Outfield staple Josh Lowe was shipped to Anaheim. It was clear the Rays were going to look different in 2026.
The moves made to upgrade the roster throughout the winter, meanwhile, attracted far less attention. But fast-forward to the Rays’ rowdy celebration on Wednesday in the visitors’ clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, and it’s clear they would not be popping bottles without a series of those stealthy moves executed last winter.
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Seemingly shirtless before all of his teammates in the postgame champagne celebration was right-hander Nick Martinez, who signed a one-year, $13 million free-agent deal back in February and started Game 3 on the mound for Tampa Bay. His effort Wednesday — two runs allowed over 3 ⅔ innings before making way for a quintet of stellar relief outings — was modest relative to his spectacular regular-season contributions. But it was no accident that the Rays felt confident giving him the ball for his first career postseason start at age 36; he spent the past eight months earning the admiration of the entire clubhouse. Not only did he enjoy a bona fide breakout on the mound en route to his first All-Star appearance, but Martinez also immediately assumed a leadership role as an affable connector of all corners of the clubhouse.
“He’s the guy that’s organizing team events,” said catcher Liam Hicks, who joined the Rays at the August trade deadline and instantly recognized Martinez’s outsized role away from the ballpark. “He’s just the man. He’s the guy that you can go to for anything.”
“Nick is everybody’s biggest cheerleader the days he doesn’t pitch and maybe more so on the days he does pitch,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He puts a smile on everybody’s face because he cares so much. He’s always asking what can I do? How can I help you? He’s been instrumental to our success.”
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“He brought this team together like nobody could,” Rays coach Ozzie Timmons said. “That’s why they call him the Prez — he comes here, he brings that energy every day, no matter how things are going. He’s always positive.”
That Martinez has emerged as not just a key clubhouse presence but also a crucial member of the pitching staff for the best team in the American League is the latest chapter in a truly unique baseball journey. A Miami native, Martinez was primarily a shortstop at Fordham University before converting full-time to the mound upon entering pro ball with the Rangers. He spent four years in the majors with Texas before heading across the globe to pitch in Japan, where he found another gear with a reinvented arsenal and improved command. After returning to the big leagues in 2022, Martinez excelled in a swingman role with San Diego and Cincinnati before joining Tampa Bay as a full-time rotation member.
Last year, when Martinez was with Cincinnati, the Reds called up an outfielder named Ryan Vilade in June, after claiming him off waivers from St. Louis a couple of weeks earlier. Martinez recognized his name but struggled to place him immediately.
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“We picked him up, and I’m like, ‘Man, I know that last name,'” Martinez recalled. “I remember his dad.”
James Vilade was a coach for the Frisco RoughRiders, the Rangers’ Double-A affiliate that Martinez pitched for in 2013 and 2014.
“I’m like, ‘Is that his son?'”
Sure enough.
“I hadn’t seen him in 12 years. He comes up like, ‘Hey, I’m Vilade — I was your bat boy [with Frisco].’ I was like, ‘Oh s***, what’s up, dude?! Good to see you again!'”
The reunion in Cincinnati was brief. Vilade appeared in one game with the Reds as a defensive substitution — in a Martinez start, as it were — before returning to Triple-A. But just a few months later, he became the first player to change teams during the offseason. On Nov. 3, the day the Dodgers held their World Series parade, the Rays acquired Vilade from Cincinnati in exchange for cash considerations.
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“I was shocked,” Vilade said of the trade while soaked in champagne and surrounded by cigar smoke. A couple hours earlier, he had provided the first big swing of the ballgame, a go-ahead solo homer to the short porch in right field off Yankees ace lefty Max Fried that made it 2-1 Tampa Bay. “It kind of blindsided me. But man, I’m so happy they did.”
Vilade was a top prep prospect and second-round pick by the Rockies out of high school in 2017. He never stuck in Colorado and bounced around a few other organizations without getting a prolonged run in the majors. But he was terrific in Triple-A for St. Louis and Cincinnati in 2025, making him an intriguing platoon target for Tampa Bay.
“When Erik [Neander] called me in November and said, ‘Hey, listen, this is going to be your job. You’re going to handle left-handed pitching,'” he recalled, “I felt from that time that this is my role. I felt pretty good.”
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On cue, the Rays’ president of baseball operations appeared, similarly drenched and rocking pink goggles for eye protection.
“A+,” Neander proclaimed, beaming as he gave Vilade a big hug. “He deserves this.”
“We should have done it sooner,” Neander said as he bounced away. “We screwed up. We should’ve gotten him last year.”
Like Martinez, Vilade brings a dose of positive hype and uplifting spirit to the clubhouse, even beyond what he does on the field.
“He brings the energy every single night,” said Rays starter Drew Rasmussen, whose no-hit bid in Game 1 set the tone for Tampa Bay’s sweep. “But then on top of it, what he’s done against left-handed pitching all year has been unbelievable. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
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With just 71 major-league plate appearances to his name entering this season, Vilade hit .272/.341/.477 with seven homers in 170 plate appearances against left-handers. And that was before his stadium-silencing moon shot off Fried.
“Just watch this place,” Rasmussen said, motioning to Martinez and Vilade in the center of the clubhouse dance party. “It revolves around those two.”
Vilade’s swing against Fried was pivotal, but it would not have been enough on its own. The Yankees drew even shortly after on a Spencer Jones RBI double.
So in the top of the sixth, it was yet another offseason addition’s turn to make an impact in the series clincher. A few days before they signed Martinez in February, the Rays acquired Victor Mesa Jr. from Miami in a trade for minor-league infielder Angel Brachi. The son of a legendary Cuban player and manager, Mesa harbored some prospect value coming up with the Marlins and debuted with them in 2025 but didn’t seem to fit into their long-term plans.
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He looked like depth for the Rays at the time of the deal and began this season in Triple-A. But after being recalled in late May, Mesa established himself as an every-day outfielder for Tampa Bay, thanks in large part to his ability to hit against pitchers from both sides. That comfort was on display in Game 3, as the lefty-swinging Mesa swatted a first-pitch sweeper from the southpaw Fried for a two-run homer that made it 4-2 Rays in the sixth — notching the fourth run that would ensure victory by the end of the night.
“Awesome human being,” Rasmussen said of Mesa. “He’s going to be a superstar.”
Awaiting Mesa at home plate: face of the franchise Junior Caminero, who also joined the Rays in an offseason trade that seemed insignificant at the time.
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This is what the Rays do. No transaction can be dismissed. Lacking the financial might of many of their biggest rivals, winning on the margins is paramount for Tampa Bay. And Neander and his front office have proven time and again that they can construct rosters capable of keeping pace with — or, in this case, downright dominating — the higher-salaried competition.
“This is the first playoff series I’ve ever won,” a glowing Rasmussen said. “We were one-and-done in 2020 because I was with Milwaukee. One-and-done in ’21. One-and-done in ’22. One-and-done in ’23. So to see one go through the uprights is really nice.”
“It’s unbelievable to do it with this group,” he added. “I bet you you can walk around this room. No one needs credit. Everyone’s willing to do the job that’s asked of them, and it just makes it such a fun environment to be in.”
From one of the best pitchers in the American League in Rasmussen to an unsung platoon bat in Vilade, the Rays are flying high. Next up: the ALCS, for just the third time in franchise history.
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“We’re pretty happy to be here right now,” Rasmussen said. “But the job’s not finished.”
“I’m grateful that I landed here,” Vilade added. “I love this team. I love this organization.
“And we’re not done yet.”
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