Tampa Bay

Rays

Simpson delivered a clutch RBI single with two outs in the eighth inning that slashed Tampa Bay’s deficit to a single run at the time. He immediately swiped second base for his 38th steal of the season before being left in scoring position to end the frame. He wraps up the month of August with 11 thefts, his highest single-month total to date.

Seymour relentlessly pounded the strike zone, throwing 65 of 88 pitches for strikes, while notching his second double-digit strikeout performance of the season. He generated an absurd 19 swinging strikes, including 12 on his fastball and changeup combination, to finish with a near-elite 36 percent CSW. He limited New York’s lineup to just a single run into the middle innings before coughing up a solo homer to Mark Vientos in the seventh. He was charged with an additional run after teammate Casey Legumina gave up an RBI single to Francisco Alvarez later in the frame. The 27-year-old southpaw has allowed three earned runs or more in four consecutive starts since August 9. He’s offset that by striking out at least seven batters in four of those five outings. He’ll close out a two-start week with a road matchup against the Rangers on Sunday.

Cave joins Tommy Pham as additional outfield depth for Chicago at Triple-A Charlotte. The 33-year-old journeyman hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since the 2024 campaign. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays back in late June. He’s merely organizational fodder at this stage of his career.

Caminero destroyed a fourth-inning solo shot off Robbie Ray, his 37th of the season. That ties Yordan Alvarez for the American League lead. There was a lot of offseason discussion about the Rays having played in a minor-league park when Caminero hit 45 homers a season ago. But he’s proving to be an annual 40-plus homer threat even at Tropicana Field. Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani are the only hitters with more home runs than Caminero over the past two seasons.

Rasmussen struck out six and walked two as the Rays went on to win 5-4 in 11 innings. The 31-year-old is up to 146 1/3 innings this season, putting him on track to blow past last year’s career high of 150. Tampa Bay will also play in the postseason, which could extend his total depending on how far they advance. Rasmussen’s 2.95 ERA in 2026 is right in line with his career 2.91 mark entering Sunday. He’ll draw a road matchup against the Rangers next time out.

Caminero led off the sixth inning with a solo homer off Walker Buehler to tie the game. The home run ends a bit of a homer drought for Caminero, as he went 15 games without a home run going into Saturday. The 23-year-old slugger is slashing .280/.367/.533 with 36 homers, 83 runs scored, and 86 RBI across 588 plate appearances.

Aranda took Walker Buehler deep for a solo homer in the third inning. He’s slowed down a bit in the power department after slugging 14 homers in the first half. Saturday’s blast was just his third since the All-Star break. The 28-year-old first baseman is up to 17 with 63 runs scored and 79 RBI while hitting .279/.362/.424 across 574 plate appearances.

Baker was summoned in the top of the ninth to close out the game against the Padres with a one-run lead. He worked around one walk, striking out one batter to shut the door on San Diego for his MLB-leading 39th save.

Martinez held the Padres scoreless through two innings before a pair of hits put a run on the board for San Diego in the third. He’d toss two more scoreless frames, then gave up a two-run homer to Ty France in the sixth. The 36-year-old right-hander ends the day with a 2.99 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, and a 91/22 K/BB ratio across 153 2/3 innings. He’ll take on the Rangers in Texas on Thursday.

Díaz hit a solo homer off Padres starter Casey Mize in the bottom of the third inning to give the Rays their first run of the night. It was the 20th homer of the season for Díaz, who also singled in the fourth inning to drive in Taylor Walls and push the Rays’ lead to 6-0. Díaz has now hit 20 homers in back-to-back seasons and needs only six more homers to top his career high (25) set last season.