The San Diego Padres literally had a win in hand before the baseball gods plucked it right out of Samad Taylor’s glove.
The Padres led the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. San Diego seemed headed toward its 73rd win of the season with lockdown closer Mason Miller taking the mound.
After yielding a single to AL MVP candidate Junior Caminero, Miller settled down to get the next two batters out. With his team down to their final out, batter Jonny DeLuca sent a ball Taylor’s way to the left-field corner.
Taylor would snag it at the warning track. But his momentum forced him to collide with the wall, resulting in the ball popping out of his glove for a game-tying home run.
Ball goes into Samad Taylor's glove and over the wall for a Jonny Deluca two-run home run off of Mason Miller to tie the game! pic.twitter.com/6IvLbB8B7E
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) August 30, 2026
Miller already had his hands up in celebration before Taylor went from hero to zero in his eyes.
Deluca’s fly ball was a few feet short of a home run. If Taylor had muffed the catch normally, the Padres would still have held a 3-2 lead with Miller on the mound. Taylor himself carried what should have been either an out or a double over the fence.
The Padres’ disastrous defense continued into extra innings. With Deluca at the plate again in the bottom of the 11th, Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts bobbled a likely out at the plate, allowing the tying run to score.
Xander Bogaerts can't field a routine ground ball, and Jonny DeLuca has tied the game again for the Rays, this time in extras (11th)#padres pic.twitter.com/CoEVn6Mt5k
— Padres Central (@PadresCentral_) August 30, 2026
The Rays secured a walk-off 5-4 victory two pitches later.
The loss stung even more for San Diego, considering the Padres are right in the thick of the NL Wild Card race. A win would have pushed the Padres a half-game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final Wild Card spot. Instead, San Diego fell behind their division rivals.
