The Tampa Bay Rays are going to the World Series, and they are taking two Cuban-born hitters with them. Tampa Bay beat the Cleveland Guardians 7–3 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field on Monday, 19 October 2026, to win the series 4–2 (MLB Stats API, game 849815; ESPN). The last two Rays runs came from Yandy Díaz, born in Sagua la Grande, Villa Clara: a two-run home run in the eighth inning, minutes after Cleveland had cut a 5–1 lead to 5–3.
Díaz and Víctor Mesa Jr., born in Havana, now meet the Milwaukee Brewers, who have no Cuban-born player on either their active or their 40-man roster (MLB Stats API, both rosters read 20 October). Unless that changes, every Cuban-born plate appearance in this World Series will come in a Rays uniform. What follows is what the series wraps leave out: both men’s full October lines, where each of them comes from, and the last time Tampa Bay brought Cubans to a World Series.
Game 6: the swing that put the pennant away
Freddy Peralta pitched into the sixth inning, Junior Caminero hit a two-run home run in the seventh, and the Rays led 5–1. Cleveland then scored twice in the top of the eighth on a bases-loaded walk to Patrick Bailey and a hit-by-pitch on Angel Martínez, which made it 5–3 with the tying runs on base. In the bottom half Díaz, leading off for Tampa Bay as he had all series, hit a Hunter Gaddis pitch 416 feet to left field, at 111.9 mph off the bat, with Taylor Walls aboard (MLB Stats API play-by-play and Statcast data). That made it 7–3, and the Guardians did not score again.
Díaz finished the night 1-for-4 with the home run, two runs batted in, a run scored and a hit-by-pitch. Mesa Jr., batting sixth in right field, went 0-for-3 but walked in the second inning and scored the game’s first run on Richie Palacios’s two-run double. Peralta was named the ALCS Most Valuable Player (ESPN).
Both Cubans’ October, series by series
The Rays swept the New York Yankees 3–0 in the Division Series and beat Cleveland 4–2 in the ALCS. The lines below are totals across every game, compiled from the MLB Stats API box scores and checked against Baseball-Reference’s series pages.
| Player | ALDS v Yankees | ALCS v Guardians | 2026 postseason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yandy Díaz (DH, bats leadoff) | 3 G, 3-for-12, 1 BB | 6 G, 9-for-27, 4 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 6 R (.333/.357/.704) | 9 G, 12-for-39, 4 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI |
| Víctor Mesa Jr. (RF/LF) | 3 G, 2-for-10, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB | 6 G, 2-for-21, 2 BB, 8 SO, 3 R | 9 G, 4-for-31, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB |
The two series went in opposite directions for the two men. Mesa Jr. hit the go-ahead home run that clinched the Division Series in the Bronx on 7 October, which we covered in Two Division Series, Two Havana-Born Hitters, then managed two singles in 21 at-bats against Cleveland and started Game 5 on the bench. Díaz went the other way: 3-for-12 against New York, then four doubles and two home runs against Cleveland, with hits in five of the six games.
Yandy Díaz: from Villa Clara to a second World Series
Díaz was born on 8 August 1991 in Sagua la Grande, in Villa Clara province, and the MLB Stats API records Cuba as his birth country, the standard this site applies before counting anyone as Cuban-born. He came through the Serie Nacional with Villa Clara: in 2009–10 he hit .292/.417/.351 for Villa Clara, and in 2010–11 .254/.399/.331 (Wikipedia; the Villa Clara lines in our Yandy Díaz player record). The on-base percentages, more than 100 points above the batting averages both years, were already the shape of the hitter Tampa Bay would get.
He left Cuba, signed with Cleveland, made his major league debut for the Indians on 3 April 2017 and has played for Tampa Bay since 2019 (MLB Stats API; Wikipedia). This is his second World Series. In 2020 he played five games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and went 4-for-12, including a run-scoring triple off Clayton Kershaw in Game 5; the Dodgers won the series 4–2 (Baseball-Reference, 2020 World Series; MLB Stats API).
His 2026 regular season ended with the American League hits title, the subject of Yandy Díaz Wins the AL Hits Title: .293/.359/.446 with 22 home runs and 85 runs batted in over 154 games for Tampa Bay (MLB Stats API).
Víctor Mesa Jr.: the son of a Serie Nacional great, in his first World Series
Mesa Jr. was born in Havana on 8 September 2001. His father, Víctor Mesa, was one of the defining outfielders of the Serie Nacional and later managed Cuba’s national team. The Miami Marlins signed him and his older brother, Víctor Víctor Mesa, on 22 October 2018; the younger brother debuted with Miami on 26 May 2025, and the Marlins traded him to Tampa Bay in February 2026. The full route is in Víctor Mesa Jr. Is the AL Player of the Week.
He hit .260/.327/.498 with 14 home runs in 79 regular-season games for the Rays (MLB Stats API; Baseball-Reference). This is his first postseason, and so his first World Series. The ALCS was the hardest week of his season, 2-for-21 with eight strikeouts, but the Division Series showed what he can do in October: the only home run he has hit in the postseason won a series.
The last time: Arozarena and Díaz, 2020
Tampa Bay’s only other World Series appearances came in 2008 and 2020. The 2020 Rays also carried two Cuban-born hitters: Díaz and Randy Arozarena, born in Havana, who hit .364 with three home runs in six games against the Dodgers (8-for-22; Baseball-Reference, 2020 World Series; MLB Stats API). Arozarena is no longer with Tampa Bay; Díaz is the link between the two pennants.
World Series schedule
Milwaukee hold home-field advantage. Start times were not yet set in the MLB schedule when this was published.
| Game | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Game 1 | Friday, 23 October | American Family Field, Milwaukee |
| Game 2 | Saturday, 24 October | American Family Field, Milwaukee |
| Game 3 | Monday, 26 October | Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg |
| Game 4 | Tuesday, 27 October | Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg |
| Game 5* | Wednesday, 28 October | Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg |
| Game 6* | Friday, 30 October | American Family Field, Milwaukee |
| Game 7* | Saturday, 31 October | American Family Field, Milwaukee |
We will add a dated line for each game to this post. The wider season is tracked in Cubans in MLB 2026: The Record Year, Mesa Jr.’s record in our Víctor Mesa Jr. player record, and the last time we followed Cubans through a Fall Classic in Cubans in the World Series Wrap Up (2021).
What we did not print
We have not said how many Cuban-born players have appeared in a World Series, or where Díaz’s or Mesa Jr.’s October ranks among them. That count runs back to 1903 and we have not checked it against two sources. The same goes for any claim that a Cuban-born hitter has never before homered in a pennant-clinching game. It may be true; it is not yet verified, and a site that sells accuracy does not get to print the flattering version.
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