Zach Neto avoids serious injury in home plate collision as Angels blow out Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -Zach Neto was able to smile and slap hands with his teammates as they piled into the clubhouse after the Angels’ 14-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, which no doubt provided a relief to anyone who had seen what happened a little earlier.

The Angels’ shortstop lay on the field for a few minutes after a home-plate collision in the seventh inning, a serious enough situation to get him to come out of a game for the first time this season.

“I just got a little whiplash,” Neto said. “I’m a little sore right now in the neck area, but I’m all good.”

Neto was at third with two outs in the seventh inning, when left-hander Ian Seymour chucked a fastball to the backstop. Neto bolted home with a feet-first slide. Seymour collided with him trying to cover the plate.

“I was just trying to score a run and I did,” Neto said. “I knew it was going to be a rough impact at the plate, but I was just making sure I was there safe and I’ll deal with the consequences after,”

Neto said he’s “confident” he’ll be able to play on Sunday, but they’ll make a decision in the morning.

Infielder Nick Madrigal, the player who replaced Neto, also came out of the game after he was hit by a pitch. He had just a cut lip, and he also said he was OK.

Positive news on both players allowed the Angels (23-36) to fully enjoy their sixth victory in the last eight games.

Wade Meckler hit a grand slam against Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen in the first inning and the Angels just kept adding runs, including homers from Mike Trout, Jo Adell and Oswald Peraza. The latter two came in a seven-run ninth inning.

“I thought they had a good approach from the beginning,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “Rasmussen’s tough. He’s a tough starter and I thought the guys did a really good job laying off some good pitches. Meckler, obviously with the big blow in the first inning. I think the good thing is they kept on it. They kept going. They kept trying to work at-bats and they kept putting good at-bats together and putting up more runs.”

Meckler continues to be a revelation for the Angels. They called him up from Double-A just over a week ago, installing him in left field to replace slumping Josh Lowe. Meckler was known for his ability to put the ball in play and get on base, but not for his power. He'd hit only 21 homers in his entire minor-league career, and none in his first 20 big-league games. He now has two with the Angels, including a three-run homer against Jacob deGrom in his first at-bat of the season.

“This year even in the minor leagues I've been doing a better job of backspinning the ball to the pull side,” Meckler said. “It’s always been kind of the thing that’s limited the power. Just better spin on the ball this year.”

Meckler said he was just trying to get the ball in the air for a sacrifice fly when he came up with one out in the first.

“A home run’s better than a sac fly but the main thing for me in that at-bat was getting the job done,” Meckler said.

The Angels’ season-high in runs helped get a victory for starter Reid Detmers on a day that he said he had to “grind,” through five innings. He gave up three runs.

“I threw some really good pitches and they had a really good approach,” Detmers said. “They weren’t swinging at anything in and down. Props to them. They rose my pitch count pretty good and got me out of there in five.”

Detmers threw 32 pitches in the first inning, including a Yandy Diaz’s third homer in the first 10 innings of the series. The Rays loaded the bases, but he didn’t give up any other runs.

Detmers settled in for a few innings after that, but the Rays got him for two more runs in the fifth. Detmers was at 92 pitches when Suzuki turned the game over to the bullpen with a 6-3 lead and four innings to go.

Right-hander José Fermin created much more drama than the Angels wanted to see when he walked the bottom two hitters in the Rays’ order in the sixth. That forced Suzuki to go to Sam Bachman to face Diaz, representing the tying run. Bachman walked Diaz to load the bases, but he escaped when Adell made a sliding catch of a Jonathan Aranda liner in right field, ending what proved to be the Rays’ final threat.

“It was 14-3, but it didn’t seem like that for most of the game,” Suzuki said. “Bach came in and did a great job. Jo obviously with a huge catch with the bases loaded right there with two outs. After that, the guys did a good job of keeping the gas on and scoring more runs.”

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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 4:59 PM.