Phillies vs. Rays updates: Score, highlights, playoff race

Updated Sept. 26, 2026, 11:57 p.m. ET

They’ve gone from fighting for a division title to cruising to a wild card berth to a final chance to save their season.

And now the Philadelphia Phillies have just one more day to squirm their way into Major League Baseball’s playoff field.

For the fourth consecutive night, the Phillies had a chance to nail down a National League wild-card berth. And for the fourth consecutive night, they failed, this time in embarrassing fashion as the finest team in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays, dealt them a 12-1 loss on Saturday, Sept. 26 that at least temporarily wrested destiny from their hands.

The Phillies extended their shutout streak to 21 innings before scoring a meaningless unearned run in the seventh inning. They have been outscored 23-2 on the four nights they had a chance to clinch or at least shave their magic number to one. They have lost six of their past eight games.

Meanwhile, surprise starter Aaron Nola was blitzed for three runs on four extra-base hits in the first inning and the Rays piled on from there.

Now, their last hope: Ace Zack Wheeler, trying to beat a Rays team with nothing to play for but a need to stay sharp with five days off before their AL Division Series begins. They will start All-Star right-hander Nick Martinez, who is 15-5 with a 2.94 ERA.

In a more ideal Phillies world, Wheeler would be resting up for a Game 1 NLDS assignment against Chris Sale. Now, he has no choice but to pitch and save the Phillies’ season.

And stave off the Arizona Diamondbacks, while he’s at it.

The D-backs took a six-game winning streak into Saturday, trailing Philadelphia by a game and owning the head-to-head tiebreaker that could vault them in the playoffs. But they lost to the San Diego Padres 10-7 at Petco Park, missing a chance to control their own destiny on the season’s final day.

Regardless, Sunday stays the same: A Diamondbacks win and a Phillies loss ends yet another Phillies season that once had such high hopes.

USA TODAY Sports provided live updates of the Phillies-Rays battle:

Rays vs. Phillies highlights

After 21 innings, Phillies finally score a run – with Rays’ help

Well, at least the 2026 season won’t elapse without the Phillies not scoring another run.

Shut out for 21 innings since Thursday night, the Phillies squeezed a run out in the seventh inning against Tampa Bay – but only because Rays second baseman Richie Palacios booted a two-out grounder. That enabled Bryson Stott to score.

Not that it saved any face: The Phillies still trail 10-1, held to just four hits by five Tampa Bay pitchers.

Manny Machado breathes life into flagging Phillies’ chances

He visited Citizens Bank Park on a gray day in 2018, the Philadelphia Phillies ready to be “stupid” about spending money and Manny Machado ready to receive some. Instead, the Phillies signed Bryce Harper to a record deal for a free agent and Manny ended up in San Diego.

Yet nearly eight years later, that transaction is paying off for the Phillies.

Machado, who has rallied back from a terrible start to his season, ripped his 30th home run, a go-ahead three-run shot in the fourth inning, to give San Diego a 6-4 lead on Arizona. Even with the Phillies losing 10-0 to Tampa Bay, a Padres win would keep the Phillies one game ahead of Arizona with one game to play. The Diamondbacks own the tiebreaker between the two teams.

Phillies can’t even win at scoreboard-watching: Arizona takes 4-3 lead

The Phillies have proven incapable of helping themselves. And the San Diego Padres are so far helpless to lend them a hand, too.

As the Phillies’ scoreless streak extended to 21 innings as they trail Tampa Bay 10-0 through six innings, Arizona’s James McCann hit a go-ahead home run to give the Diamondbacks a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the fourth at San Diego.

An Arizona win – its seventh in a row – means the Phillies’ destiny would be out of their hands on Sunday, the final day of the regular season. Stay tuned.

Thunderous boos at Citizens Bank as Phillies trail 10-0

At this point, the Phillies don’t need a rally. They need a mercy rule.

One of the game’s greatest collapses in recent years turned macabre in the sixth inning Saturday, as the Rays plated three more runs off Jose Urquidy to take a 10-0 lead on Richie Palacios’s two-run single.

Palacios’s line drive had hardly touched the damp outfield grass when the Citizens Bank Park crowd produced a booming chorus of boos. While the standard Philly fan can be somewhat reactionary, this was fully warranted: The Phillies’ shutout streak has reached 21 innings and they’ve been outscored 21-2 since Wednesday – the first day they could have clinched a playoff berth.

Another Mattingly maneuver blows up as Rays take 7-0 lead

It’s getting ugly at Citizens Bank Park.

After Aaron Nola got chased after one inning, the Phillies’ planned bullpen game calmed things down into the fifth. But then Chase Shugart issued a leadoff single to Yandy Díaz, interim manager Don Mattingly summoned veteran lefty Jose Alvarado and things blew up again.

Alvarado failed his initial assignment, issuing a walk to Jonathan Aranda. The jam was exacerbated when Liam Hicks rolled a perfect double-play grounder to second, but Bryson Stott’s throw was high, resulting in just one out.

Mattingly opted not to walk Rays slugger Junior Caminero in the first inning – and he hit a game-turning two-run homer. This time, with first base occupied, Mattingly ordered the intentional pass to Caminero, loading the bases. And then Victor Mesa Jr. lashed a single to left, and Alvarado issued a bases-loaded walk to Richie Palacios. Just like that, a three-run deficit became 5-0 – all the runs coming after dubious Mattingly decisions.

Mattingly mercifully lifted Alvarado and Jose Urquidy recorded an out, but Cedric Mullins brought the last bit of pain – a two-run single for a 7-0 Tampa Bay lead at the game’s halfway point.

Phillies’ scoreless streak reaches 18 innings

If the Phillies are truly bowing out of postseason play, they’re doing it in the meekest fashion possible.

Philadelphia’s scoreless streak reached 18 innings as Tampa Bay starter Griffin Jax worked around a pair of hits to get through the third inning with a 3-0 lead intact.

And the Phillies can’t even get a good bounce.

With two outs and Justin Crawford on second, Trea Turner hit a line drive up the middle – 104 mph off the bat – that struck Jax in the lower back. But the ball caromed directly to shortstop Taylor Walls, who threw out the speedy Turner at first.

Jax will be done for the night, replaced by lefty Steven Matz, so perhaps the Phillies’ luck will turn. Then again, they haven’t been able to score off anybody.

Don Mattingly yanks Aaron Nola after just one inning

Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly thought spot starter Aaron Nola could give him “40 or 50 pitches” in a start made possible by Nola skipping his usual between-starts throwing session. The verdict: Nola threw 21 pitches, four of them crushed for extra-base hits, and departed with the Phillies in a 3-0 hole.

Left-hander Tanner Banks was summoned for the top of the second as the Phillies’ expected bullpen game was on in earnest. And he supplied a scoreless inning. Now, though, they’re facing an uphill climb with a malfunctioning offense.