Rays Win 9-0, Make History With Road Sweep Over 'Best in Baseball' Mets

NEW YORK — Start spreading the news. The Tampa Bay Rays are on fire, and they made some more history on Sunday after pounding the New York Mets 9-0 at Citi Field.

The win completed the series sweep after 7-5 and 8-4 wins to start the weekend, and pushed the Rays to seven games over .500 for the first time all year. It was also the first time the Mets had been swept at home in 2025, and they fell to 45-27 after entering the weekend with the best record in baseball.

The road sweep in June against the best team in baseball was something the Rays had never done before in franchise history. And it got them to within 3.5 games of the New York Yankees in the American League East race.

It was a heck of a weekend.

“We are playing good baseball, and I’m very encouraged by the way we played — offense, defense and pitching,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters after the game. “To do that against this quality Mets team, everything has to go right like it did for the most part.”

Pitcher Shane Baz was the star of the day, pitching 6 2/3 scoreless innings and allowing just three hits for his first quality start since April 25, when he pitched seven scoreless against the San Diego Padres in a 1-0 win.

In between has been a little rough — he's got a 6.75 ERA in his last eight starts — so it was great to see him back in fine form. He did walk four batters — which is never good — but he worked around it all, especially in the third inning when he got out of bases-loaded jam by striking out Tampa native Pete Alonso to end the inning.

“Obviously, I put myself in a bad spot there by walking (two) guys,” Baz told reporters of his third-inning battles. “The guys came out to talk to me and reiterate what the game plan was and just give me a little break to collect myself. I was able to get a couple of fastballs by Alonso and get out of the inning.

“Alonso is a great hitter. He hits mistakes really well. You don’t have to have good stuff. You have to put it in the right spots. I was going to let it all out there. I wasn't going to hold back or try to be too perfect. I was going to throw a fastball. It worked out.”

The Rays bullpen, which was spectacular all weekend, took it from there to complete the shutout. Mason Montgomery got the final out in the seventh, getting a ground out from Francisco Lindor. Eric Orze, a former Met, got five outs but also walked three batters, so Cole Sulser got the final out to complete the Rays' sixth shutout of the season.

Baz now has six wins, tied for the team lead with Drew Rasmussen and Zack Littell. It was just the second time in eight starts that he had allowed fewer than three runs.

He got plenty of help from the offense once again, which scored 24 runs over the weekend against a Mets pitching staff that leads all of baseball in earned run average. They jumped on them early again, scoring three runs in the second inning off starter Griffin Canning.

Canning walked two batters, then Jose Caballero reached on a bunt single to load the bases with none out. Kameron Misner drove in a run on a fielder's choice, the second run scored on a wild pitch and the Rays went ahead 3-0 on a Danny Jansen single.

Canning, who entered the game with a 3.22 ERA, walked five batters — and they all scored. Jake Mangum drove in a run on a fielder's choice and Jonathan Aranda had a two-run double in the fifth inning. Junior Caminero blew the game wide open with a three-run homer in the ninth, his 17th of the season.

It was a big weekend for the Rays, who are now 19-11 against the National League and can claim road sweeps against two of the league's best teams, the Mets and San Diego Padres. They are now just 3. games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East race. They were swept by Boston over the weekend.

Suddenly, the Rays are right back in the thick of things, and now come home for four games with Batlimore and three more with Detroit at Steinbrenner Field, starting Monday night.

“The Yankees are a very good team, but we have to control what we can and that’s kind of staying series to series,'' Cash said. "We did a good job of resetting after the Red Sox series to come to (New York) after the off-day and play well. Now we have to go home and do that in the Orioles series.”

Former Rays pitcher Zach Eflin will start for Baltimore Monday night against Tampa Bay's Ryan Pepiot. The game starts at 7:35 p.m. ET