Now THAT's a hidden ball trick: Misner's disappearing homer sparks Rays

TAMPA -- Wyatt Langford trotted toward the warning track in the left-field corner at George M. Steinbrenner Field, looked up into the dark, cloudy sky, stopped in his tracks and shrugged.

He wasn’t sure where Kameron Misner's fly ball had landed. As he rounded first base, Misner wasn’t sure, either. He just saw Langford standing in the outfield.

Maybe he caught it, Misner thought. Nobody else seemed to know.

Television cameras didn’t capture the ball clearing the fence. The crowd didn’t respond with an immediate roar. But Rays manager Kevin Cash had a clear view down the line and saw it was “well fair.” Third-base umpire Jordan Baker saw it, too, and a handful of fists in the home dugout shot into the air.

“Everybody started looking at me,” Misner said. “Usually, that's a good sign.”

Indeed, it was.

Misner’s 88.9 mph fly ball stayed fair and just got over the left-field fence at Steinbrenner Field, landing for a solo homer that gave starter Drew Rasmussen an early lead in the Rays’ 5-1 win against the Rangers on Tuesday night -- their 10th victory in their last 13 games and their first against Texas since April 2, 2024.

Rasmussen extended his scoreless streak to 23 innings, the longest active run by a starter in the Majors, by pitching five dominant frames. The right-hander allowed just one hit and struck out eight batters (six of them looking, tied for the most in a game this season) without a walk. He is the first pitcher in Rays history to make four consecutive scoreless starts of at least five innings.

“The stuff and the command are allowing him to put up all these scoreless innings and limit damage,” Cash said. “He's on just an impressive run right now that I don't think any of us want to get in the way of.”

The longest scoreless streak by a starting pitcher in Rays history belongs to Alex Cobb, who had a 24 2/3-inning run in early 2014. Taj Bradley had a 24-inning streak last July. Rasmussen is tied for third on that list, matching a 2011 run by James Shields. Among qualified starters, his 2.14 ERA ranks ninth in the Majors and his 0.87 WHIP is third behind Tarik Skubal and Nathan Eovaldi.

“To be throwing the ball right now and just giving us the opportunity to win is a blessing, for sure,” Rasmussen said.

He had to be on point in what figured to be a series-opening pitchers' duel.

Before Misner’s homer in the second inning, Texas starter Tyler Mahle had allowed only two to the first 265 batters he faced this season. And this one, confirmed by a crew chief replay review, was pretty unusual.

It’s the softest-hit home run of this season, according to Statcast; the previous low was a 90.6 mph homer by the Astros’ Jeremy Peña on May 27. It traveled a projected 328 feet and would have only been out of two ballparks, per Statcast: Steinbrenner Field and Yankee Stadium.

Misner’s fifth home run of the season was the third-softest-hit homer by a Rays player since Statcast began tracking batted balls in 2015 and tied for the 32nd-softest (including the postseason, but not inside-the-park homers) in the Statcast era.

And, obviously, it left the Rangers quite confused.

“I just lost it -- not in the lights, but in the twilight,” Langford said. “I never saw it. I couldn’t see it on the replay, either. But I heard it. Something behind me went, ‘Whack!’”

The Rays gave their bullpen some breathing room in the sixth with a rally that was nearly as unconventional as Misner’s disappearing home run. They only hit one ball out of the infield the entire inning, yet they managed to put up three runs.

Yandy Díaz walked, Jonathan Aranda smacked a single to center and Junior Caminero walked to load the bases. That ended Mahle’s night, but lefty reliever Jacob Latz immediately uncorked a wild pitch that brought in a run.

Jake Mangum then hit a ball that bounced to the right of the mound, and Aranda dashed home while first baseman Jake Burger struggled to corral it. With Misner at the plate, Caminero seized on catcher Kyle Higashioka’s bouncing attempt to catch Mangum stealing second and swiped home for an unplanned double-steal.

Caminero hit his team-leading 14th home run in the eighth making him the first player in the Majors to homer and steal home in the same game since Jarren Duran did so against the Rays on May 21, 2024. The last Ray to do it was Randy Arozarena in Game 1 of the 2021 American League Division Series.

Asked which feat he liked more, his homer or his first steal of home, Caminero smiled.

“Both,” he answered.