San Diego Padres at Tampa Bay Rays

Jonny DeLuca rounded the bases, touched home plate and still wasn’t sure what had just happened.  Can you really blame him? Much like this unexpectedly excellent Rays season as a whole, what took place in the final frames of their 5-4 extra-innings win over the Padres on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field defied logic and any sort of reasonable explanation. “That’s probably the most exciting one we've had this year,” starter Drew Rasmussen said. With the Rays down by two runs, Junior Caminero on first base and two outs in the ninth inning, DeLuca stepped into the batter’s box against the untouchable Mason Miller and launched a fly ball to the left-field corner. Samad Taylor followed the ball to the warning track, extended his glove and seemed to snag it for the final out. Game over? Not yet. Taylor’s momentum carried him into the lower portion of the wall, the space that was originally cut down so Carl Crawford could more easily rob home runs and most famously made Evan Longoria’s Game 162 home run possible. As Taylor crashed into the fence, the ball fell out of his glove and landed on the other side — onto the 162 Landing buffet — for a game-tying homer. “Obviously,” DeLuca said, “I love that wall.” Game over? Caminero thought so. “I said, 'Are you kidding me?'” he said afterward. “I said, 'Oh, the game's over right there. The game's over. We're winning no matter what.'” That proved to be prophetic two innings later. Tampa Bay capitalized on its second chance in the 11th, when Jorge Mateo lined a walk-off single over Taylor’s head to finish another crazy victory over the Padres that sealed the American League-best Rays’ MLB-leading and franchise record-tying 14th sweep of the season.