NEW YORK — Victor Mesa Jr. didn't bother to watch his home run land in Yankee Stadium's right-field seats, instead turning to his Tampa Bay teammates in the third-base dugout.
Rays manager Kevin Cash waved an arm and pointed toward first base, urging Mesa to start the type of trot the 25-year-old yearned of when he defected from Cuba in 2018.
“That’s the moment that you want to live when you’re growing up,” Mesa said after his tiebreaking, two-run homer off Max Fried in the sixth inning lifted Tampa Bay over the New York Yankees 4-3 on Wednesday night for a three-game sweep of their AL Division Series.
Ryan Vilade also homered for the Rays, who got help from a fan interference call and reached the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2020. They host the Chicago White Sox or Cleveland Guardians in the opener on Monday.
“We’re a bunch of dogs,” Vilade said. “We don’t care who’s on the other side. We’re going to go out and compete and do our thing.”
Mesa, 25, was designated for assignment by Miami just ahead of spring training, then traded to the Rays.
“Look where I am now," he said.
Cash had worried when Mesa lingered at home plate.
“The last thing we need to do is ignite a really great team over there,” the manager said of the Yankees. “I get the emotions and the excitement and that was probably the biggest home run he’s ever hit in his life, so I totally appreciate how you want to enjoy that. In today’s game, there's a fine line of what’s OK and what’s not.”
A son of former Cuba player and national team manager Victor Mesa, Victor Jr. was 16 when he left Cuba along with his older brother, Victor Mesa. Both signed with the Miami Marlins and the older brother didn't advance past Triple-A.
“When we defect(ed), we knew that we wanted to live moments like this," Victor Mesa Jr. said. “I want to thank him because he’s a big part of why I’m here.”
Vilade, 27, is with his sixth major league organization and got extensive big league playing time for the first time this season.
“Last year I was in Memphis and sleeping on an Amazon — or a Walmart bed,” he said of his stint with St. Louis' Triple-A farm team. “And this year I’m here and get to go to the ALCS and compete with my guys.”
After Mesa's homer gave the Rays a 4-2 lead, Anthony Volpe appeared to hit a two-run shot against Griffin Jax with two outs in the bottom half as a fan reached over the left-field wall and caught the ball over the glove of a leaping Mesa.
A video review by replay umpire Malachi Moore determined the ball would not have been over the wall and would not have been caught by Mesa. Volpe was awarded an RBI double and George Lombard Jr. was allowed to score from first base. Jax recovered to strike out Spencer Jones.
Baseball's embrace of video technology was key to the inning.
Lombard reached with a one-out walk when a 3-1 pitch called a strike by plate umpire Dan Bellino was ruled inside on an ABS challenge. Austin Wells then walked on full-count changeup but an ABS challenge by Rays catcher Liam Hicks ruled the pitch caught the inside corner for a strikeout, bringing up Volpe.
Quite a change from 1996, when umpires did not have replays to assist and Derek Jeter's homer for the Yankees helped turn around the ALCS opener despite young fan Jeffrey Meier reaching over the right-field wall where Baltimore's Tony Tarasco was set to catch the ball. MLB began using video for home run calls in 2008 and allowed challenges to ball/strike decisions starting this year.
Junior Caminero singled ahead of Mesa's homer on a sweeper, the first longball Fried allowed to a left-handed hitter since August 2025.
“We played a good game and did enough to win and unfortunately I didn’t do enough to hold up my end of the bargain," Fried said.
Ian Seymour pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Kevin Kelly struck out pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to strand a runner in the eighth.
Bryan Baker pitched the ninth, striking out Trent Grisham with a runner at second to become the first pitcher with three saves and no hits allowed in a three-game post-season sweep.
"We’re going to have to bring it in the ALCS and keep playing our type of baseball,” Baker said.
Seeking its first World Series title, Tampa Bay celebrated on the field of the big-spending Yankees for the second time in two weeks after clinching the AL East on Sept. 22. New York opened the season with MLB's third-highest payroll at $303 million while the Rays were 26th at $91 million.
Swept in a best-of-five post-season matchup for the first time since the 1980 ALCS against Kansas City, the Yankees ended their 17th straight season without a World Series crown. That equalled their longest drought since winning their first championship in 1923, a gap between titles in 1978 and '96.
“The ending is terrible,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a broken clubhouse.”
Yankees captain Aaron Judge missed the post-season after straining a calf on Sept. 16. The three-time AL MVP played just seven games after May 31 because of a fractured rib and the leg injury, an absence the team couldn't overcome. New York batted .130 in the series and was outscored 10-5.
“There’s a standard to win a championship, and it’s black and white," Judge said. "There’s no gray area."
After sweeping Boston in the Wild Card Series, New York never led against the Rays and has not advanced past a higher-seeded team in the post-season since 2020.
“This is my fourth season. It’s been far too many times having this taste in your mouth,” Volpe said. “There’s too many chips added to your shoulder that it just feels like enough’s enough.”
Jonathan Aranda put the Rays ahead with an RBI single in the third and Ben Rice tied the score against Nick Martinez with a single in the bottom half, his eighth RBI of the post-season.
Vilade's opposite-field, 340-foot drive in the fourth landed just over the right-field short porch. The ball, just over the glove of a jumping Jones, would not have been out of any other big league ballpark.
Volpe, starting at second base in place of Jazz Chisholm Jr., hit a 96.6 m.p.h. liner off Martinez’s back with two outs in the fourth for an infield single, and Seymour relieved. Jones’ opposite-field double landed beyond Mesa, driving in Volpe.
The Yankees left the ballpark dejected.
“We didn’t meet the expectations of the fans and this organization," ace Cam Schlittler said. “There’s a certain standard of being a Yankee and we didn’t fulfill that.”
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Tampa Bay gets four days off and will have played just three games in 14 days before starting the ALCS.
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