Rays Beat Padres 4-2 on Sunday, Sweep Series With Unlikely Heroes

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The Tampa Bay Rays had a lot of firsts on Sunday. A whole lot of them.

The Rays beat the San Diego Padres 4-2 at Petco Park, completing a series sweep where Tampa Bay pitchers allowed only three runs in 27 innings. And they did it with a few unlikely heroes doing things for the first time.

Here's the long list of firsts:

The Rays swept their first series of the season after winning 1-0 and 4-1 on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

It's the first time they've swept a series at Petco Park since 2004.

Light-hitting shortstop Taylor Walls hit his first home run of the season, a 386-foot shot to right field. It was his first homer since Sept. 7, 2024 at Baltimore, and that was his only dinger all of last year.

Starting pitcher Zack Littell pitched five innings and allowed just two runs and five hits. He got the win, his first of the year after starting the season 0-5.

The Rays swept a first-place team on the road for the first time since 2020, when they won three straight against the New York Yankees. San Diego (17-11) had been 12-1 at home before the Rays arrived.

The Rays have also won five games in a row for the first time all year. They won five straight just once all of last year.

"The dugout erupted (on the Walls homer),'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We were all pumped for Wallsy. We talk about it all the time. He's a special player, and what he maybe doesn't do offensively on some days, he always does defensively. To have him come and contribute in a big way with that home run was nice.

"Littell nagivated through his five innings and 0-5, it doesn't feel like he's performed like that. We really executed a ton of pitches this series to help us win these games. Great job by the entire pitching staff.''

The Rays' last five-game road winning streak came during that torrid start to the 2023 season, when the Rays were 29 games over .500 (57-28) by the end of June. They won twice at Cincinnati 10-0 and 8-0 on April 18-19, then won three games in Chicago against the White Sox on April 27-29. They won 14-5, 3-2 and 12-3 against the Sox, and had a whopping plus-37 run differential during the win streak.

They lost that first game in Arizona on Tuesday night, then won the next two in extra innings. The Rays arrived at Petco to take on a San Diego team that was leading the National League West — the best division in baseball — and was 12-1 at home and playing well in all phases of the game.

But the Rays completely shut them down. They scored only three runs in three nights and rarely threatened.

San Diego hasn't been swept in a three-game series since last June against the New York Mets, a stretch of 37 series. (They lost a two-game set to Seattle July 9-10). And they were 12-1 at home this year before the Rays arrived.

The Padres scored first with a run in the second inning, scoring with three singles. Jose Iglesias had the RBI to give them a 1-0 lead

Taylor Walls tied the game with his homer, and they added another when flashy rookie Chandler Simpson singled, stole second and scored on a Brandon Lowe single to take a 2-1 lead

The #Rays dugout gave Taylor Walls the silent treatment after his first home run of the season 🤣 Moments later, the celebration started. pic.twitter.com/oHxK6kcBpa
— Ryan Bass (@Ry_Bass) April 27, 2025

San Diego tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a Manny Machado sacrifice fly, but then the Rays answered again in the fifth when Simpson slapped a single to left, went to third on another Lowe single and then scored on a wild pitch to go up 3-2.

Simpson added an insurance run in the ninth inning with an RBI single, driving in newcomer Travis Jankowski, who led off the inning with a double. Simpson was 3-for-4 and is hitting .400 after a week in the big leagues. Jankowski had two hits in his debut.

"He continues to impress,'' Walls said of Simpson. "Everybody knew coming in that his speed was his element, but I think he's also showing that he has the ability to impact the game offensively and defensively.

"He's come up in some huge spots and came up big. He impacts the game in all three phases. That's what this team is built on. When you're name's called, you deliver. He impacts the game in a positive way.''

Walls' first homer was a feel-good moment for everyone, including the shortstop. He got the silent treatment in the dugout and then a lot of hoots and hollers in the locker room after the win. It was a good day.

"I guess you've got to have real juice to get it out of there today. Nobody did it but me,'' Walls said with a laugh after getting some ribbing from teammates. "I'm just kidding. Really, I was just grinding through that at-bat and I feel like I was seeing the ball pretty well. I caught it out front and put a good swing on it. It was nice to feel that.''

Littell took care of the first five, and then Manuel Rodriguez, Mason Montgomery, Edwin Uceta and Pete Fairbanks covered the final four innings out of the bullpen without allowing a hit. Fairbanks pitched a perfect ninth to get his sixth save of the season.

"That's what they do. It's kind of the Rays' way, right?'' Walls said of the relievers. "These last five games, our pitching staff has done a great job.''

The Rays are back at .500 now at 14-14 and are off on Monday, They will start a three-game series at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa with the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.

"We want to continue to play good baseball,'' Cash said. "I'm really impressed with how they got on the plane and really flushed what went on in Tampa. We came out here on the road and won two series against two really good teams.''