Sports
Red-hot Rays look to squeeze out another win against Marlins
May 15, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Cedric Mullins (31) slides past the tag by Miami Marlins catcher Joe Mack (80) to score a run in the second inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images The Tampa Bay Rays are getting plenty of bang for their buck after signing right-hander Nick Martinez in the offseason to a one-year contract worth a guaranteed $13 million.
Martinez will look to continue to pay dividends on Saturday when the red-hot Rays attempt to win the three-game series against the Miami Marlins in St. Petersburg. Fla.
Cedric Mullins homered among his season-high four hits and scored three times, helping Tampa Bay cruise to a 7-2 victory in the opener of the Citrus Series. The win was the Rays’ 11th in a row at home and 17th in their past 20 outings overall.
Martinez (4-1, 1.70 ERA) will look to win his fifth straight start on Saturday when he opposes Miami’s Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.90).
Martinez continued his torrid pace after allowing one run in 5 2/3 innings of a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. He has yielded just three runs on 20 hits in 25 2/3 innings during his personal winning streak and surrendered two runs or fewer in each of his eight starts to begin the season.
“His body of work through all (eight) starts, we’re incredibly pleased with it, and he should be proud of himself,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Martinez.
Martinez, 35, is 4-1 with a 3.58 ERA in 12 career appearances (five starts) against Miami.
As for Mullins, he appears to be pulling out of his early season funk. He followed up a disastrous April in which he batted .143 by hitting .306 (11-for-36) thus far in May.
Yandy Diaz answered a two-hit performance in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss in 10 innings to the Toronto Blue Jays with a two-run homer on his first at-bat on Friday.
Keeping Mullins and Diaz in check will be the responsibility of Alcantara.
The 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner recorded his third straight no-decision on Sunday despite allowing two runs on five hits in six innings of a 5-2 win against the Washington Nationals.
Alcantara, 30, is 2-4 with a 3.89 ERA in seven career appearances (all starts) against Tampa Bay.
Should all go well for the Marlins, the ball could land in the hand of former Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks. He signed a one-year, $13 million contract with Miami during the offseason following seven seasons with Tampa Bay.
“The last time I was in here (Tropicana Field) throwing, I got hurt. Hopefully we’ll avoid that on this one,” said Fairbanks, who just returned from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday due to nerve irritation in his right (pitching) hand.
“I spent a lot of games either watching or pitching at the Trop. It kinda takes me way back. … it’s not uncharted territory but it’s definitely a little different after spending as long as I did on the home side.”
As it stands, Miami has lost two in a row and three of its first four contests on its six-game road trip that also took the Marlins to Minnesota.
Jakob Marsee homered among his three hits and Connor Norby also went deep on Friday for the Marlins.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Shopify Rebellion earns LCS Spring playoff spot with Disguised defeat
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Cloud9 closed out an undefeated regular season while Shopify Rebellion clinched a playoff spot with a win on Sunday at the LCS Spring event in Los Angeles.
Cloud9 improved to 7-0 with a sweep of Team Liquid, while Shopify Rebellion swept Disguised, which was in the final playoff spot but will now finish in seventh place and fail to advance.
Eight teams will compete in best-of-three matches in the round-robin regular season before advancing to the playoffs of the League of Legends event, which will be contested in best-of-five matches in a double-elimination format. The top two teams will qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational.
Cloud9 opened with a 38-minute win on blue and finished off the sweep with a 34-minute defeat of Team Liquid on blue.
Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen of Denmark had a 10-3-19 kill-death-assist ratio for Cloud9, supplemented by Robert “Blaber” Huang’s 10-5-23 K-D-A ratio. Argentina’s Brandon “Josedeodo” Villegas led Team Liquid, which will be either the third or fourth seed depending on Sunday’s LYON result, with a 6-9-9 K-D-A ratio.
Shopify’s sweep came on 30- and 37-minute triumphs on blue. Juan “Contractz” Garcia led Shopify Rebellion’s victory with a 20-4-17 K-D-A ratio. South Korea’s Oh “Callme” Ji-hoon led Disguised with a 8-6-10 K-D-A.
The seven-week regular season concludes Sunday with FlyQuest taking on LYON and winless Dignitas facing Sentinels.
Regular-season standings (Win-loss total, map differential)
1. Cloud9, 7-0, 14-4
2. LYON, 5-1, 11-4
3. Team Liquid, 5-2, 11-7
4. FlyQuest, 3-3, 9-7
5. Sentinels, 2-4, 7-9
6. Shopify Rebellion, 2-5, 5-10
7. Disguised, 2-5, 4-11
8. Dignitas, 0-6, 3-12
–Field Level Media
Sports
Unbeaten Team Falcons take top spot in Group A
Team Falcons downed Team Spirit 2-1 on Saturday in a battle for first place in Group A at the DreamLeague Season 29 event.
Now the only unbeaten team, Team Falcons is 6-0 going into the final day of the group stage as Team Spirit fell to 5-1.
Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak of Russia led Team Falcons with a 27-14-46 kill-death-assist ratio. Denis “Larl” Sigitov of Russia paced Team Spirit with a 27-12-36 K-D-A.
GamerLegion (1-5) notched their first win in Group A by downing Virtus.pro 2-1.
In Group B, Natus Vincere and PARIVISION are atop the standings at 5-1. PARIVISION went 1-1 on Saturday, sweeping Nigma Galaxy 2-0 and falling to PlayTime 2-1. Natus Vincere went 2-0 on the day, sweeping PlayTime and edging Tundra Esports 2-1.
Artem “Niku” Bachkur led Natus Vincere in the sweep of PlayTime with a 21-3-32 K-D-A ratio, while teammate and fellow Ukrainian Taras “gotthejuice” Linnikov contributed a 17-8-29 K-D-A in the win over Tundra Esports.
The $1 million Dota 2 event is beginning with the 16 teams divided into two groups for round-robin play. The top four teams in each group earn spots in the upper bracket for the double-elimination playoffs, while the fifth- and sixth-place teams will start the playoffs in the lower bracket.
All matches through the event are best-of-three until the final on May 24, which will be best-of-five. The championship team will receive $250,000 in player prize money, a club bonus of $40,000 and a minimum of 6,000 ESL Pro Tour points.
On Saturday in Group A, Team Spirit opened with a win in 43 minutes on green before Team Falcons rallied with victories in 65 minutes on green and 45 minutes on red.
Team Liquid swept ex-HEROIC in 44 minutes on red and 24 minutes on green.
Aurora Gaming opened with a 44-minute win on green before Vici Gaming drew even with a 32-minute victory on green. Aurora closed it out with a marathon 69-minute win on red.
GamerLegion bounced back from an opening loss in 41 minutes to Virtus.pro, which was on red, to win in 28 minutes and 35 minutes, both on red.
In Group B, Tundra Esports started with a 51-minute win on green before BetBoom Team drew level with a 37-minute win on green. Tundra had green for the third map and won in 49 minutes to take the match.
PARIVISION swept Nigma Galaxy in 31 minutes on red and 35 minutes on green.
Natus Vincere dispatched PlayTime 2-0, winning in 31 minutes on red and 43 minutes on green.
Xtreme Gaming swept REKONIX in 36 minutes on green and 33 minutes on red.
BetBoom Team followed suit against Xtreme Gaming, winning in 70 minutes on green and 36 minutes on red.
Natus Vincere outbattled Tundra Esports 2-1. Natus Vincere opened with a 44-minute victory on green, then Tundra won in 43 minutes on green. Natus Vincere took the match with a 53-minute win on red.
PlayTime opened with a 50-minute win on red in taking down PARIVISION 2-1. After PARIVISION responded with a 30-minute victory on red, PlayTime won in 41-minutes on green.
Nigma Galaxy swept REKONIX, winning in 45 minutes on red and 42 minutes on green.
The Sunday schedule:
Group A
–Team Spirit vs. ex-HEROIC
–Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion
–Team Liquid vs. Vici Gaming
–AuroraGaming vs. Virtus.pro
Group B
–Xtreme Gaming vs. Natus Vincere
–BetBoom Team vs. Nigma Galaxy
–Tundra Esports vs. PlayTime
–PARIVISION vs. REKONIX
DreamLeague Season 29 group standings, with match record and map record
Group A
1. Team Falcons, 6-0, 12-2
2. Team Spirit, 5-1, 11-3
3. Team Liquid, 5-2, 9-5
4. Aurora Gaming, 3-3, 7-7
T5. Vici Gaming, 2-4, 5-8
T5. Virtus.pro, 2-4, 6-8
7. ex-HEROIC, 1-5, 2-10
8. GamerLegion, 1-5, 2-11
Group B
T1. Natus Vincere, 5-1, 10-4
T1. PARIVISION, 5-1, 11-5
T3. BetBoom Team, 3-3, 8-7
T3. PlayTime, 3-3, 7-7
T3. Xtreme Gaming, 3-3, 7-6
T6. Nigma Galaxy, 2-4, 5-8
T6. Tundra Esports, 2-4, 6-10
8. REKONIX, 1-5, 3-10
DreamLeague Season 29 prize pool, with player prize money, club bonus money and base ESL Pro Tour points
1. $250,000, $40,000, 6,000 points
2. $100,000, $30,000, 5,000 points
3. $80,000, $25,000, 4,000 points
4. $60,000, $20,000, 3,200 points
5-6. $40,000, $15,000, 2,200 points
7-8. $27,500, $12,500, 1,000 points
9-12. $20,000, $10,000, 375 points
13-14. $12,500, $10,000, 140 points
15-16. $10,000, $10,000, 60 points
–Field Level Media
Sports
Streak-busting Marlins seek series victory over Rays
May 16, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Miami Marlins left fielder Heriberto Hernandez (13) is congratulated by catcher Joe Mack (80) after hitting a home run during the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Mike Watters-Imagn Images Jakob Marsee is squeezing out plenty of offense in the Citrus Series.
Fresh off back-to-back three-hit performances, Marsee will look to lead the Miami Marlins to a series victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of the three-game set in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Marsee collected his third hit on Saturday after recording a single with two outs in the ninth inning. He promptly scampered home on Javier Sanoja’s RBI double to take a 2-1 lead. The Marlins erupted for eight runs in the 10th en route to securing a 10-5 victory.
So, what does Marsee attribute to his recent success at the plate?
“Honestly, I used (teammate Liam Hicks’) bat. Another thing is talking to my dad back home, my hitting coach back home,” Marsee told the Marlins Radio Network. “Couple things cleaned up mechanically to give me more confidence. … It’s bound to happen.”
Marsee is happy it has, given he was mired in a 4-for-29 stretch with nine strikeouts over his previous nine games.
Then there’s Sanoja, who also had a bases-clearing double to highlight Miami’s monster 10th inning on Saturday. He went 2-for-5 with four RBIs after going 0-for-14 in his previous four games.
“He’s come through so many times,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of Sanoja. “I know he was frustrated, but to get the big one in the ninth to give us the lead, and then to come back again and come up with another big one, that’s what he does. Happy for him. Happy for us. That’s what he’s shown is that the moment is never too big for him.”
While Miami improved to 2-3 on its six-game road trip, Tampa Bay saw its 11-game home winning streak come to a halt following just its fourth loss in 21 games.
Eury Perez (2-5, 4.94 ERA) will look to halt a four-start losing streak for the Marlins on Sunday when he takes the mound against the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen (3-1, 3.16) in a battle of right-handers.
Perez allowed three runs on as many hits in six innings of a 3-0 setback to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. The 23-year-old has yet to face Tampa Bay in his career.
Rasmussen also gave up three runs in six innings in his last start but walked away a winner in the Rays’ 8-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.
While happy with the win, Rasmussen sees room for improvement — namely, cutting down on the home-run ball. He has been taken deep seven times over 42 2/3 innings this season, including once in each of his last two starts.
“It seems right now the only runs that I’m giving up are via home runs, so I’ve got to figure out a way to limit damage in certain situations,” Rasmussen said, per the Tampa Bay Times. “But other than that, like we’ve talked about, every single outing it just seems to be a pitch or two. That’s pretty hard to complain about in the grand scheme of things. But, like, we’ve got to get back to keeping the ball in the yard a little bit.”
Rasmussen, 30, is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in six career appearances (four starts) versus Miami.
–Field Level Media
