{"id":290657,"date":"2026-05-31T04:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/290657\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T04:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:45:15","slug":"zach-neto-avoids-serious-injury-in-home-plate-collision-as-angels-blow-out-rays-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/290657\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Neto avoids serious injury in home plate collision as Angels blow out Rays \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Angels<\/p>\n

Angels third baseman Donovan Walton leaps over shortstop Zach Neto after Neto misplayed a pop fly double by Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Junior Caminero during the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels<\/p>\n

Angels shortstop Zach Neto (9) overruns a pop fly double by Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Junior Caminero in front of third baseman Donovan Walton during the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An Angels trainer and manager Kurt Suzuki, right, check on Zach Neto after Neto was involved in a collision at home platae with Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Ian Seymour during the seventh inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels\u2019<\/p>\n

Angels\u2019 Wade Meckler (53) celebrates his grand slam off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen with Oswald Peraza (2) during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels\u2019<\/p>\n

Angels\u2019 Wade Meckler (53) reacts after his grand slam off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels<\/p>\n

Angels pitcher Reid Detmers delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels\u2019<\/p>\n

Angels\u2019 Mike Trout (27) watches his home run off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Casey Legumina during the fifth inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels\u2019<\/p>\n

Angels\u2019 Mike Trout (27) celebrates with Vaughn Grissom (5) after the team defeated the Tampa Bay Rays during a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels\u2019<\/p>\n

Angels\u2019 Oswald Peraza (2) celebrates his home run off Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Cole Sulser during the ninth inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

\"Angels\u2019<\/p>\n

Angels\u2019 Nick Madrigal, center, reacts after getting hit by a pitch from Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Andrew Wantz during the ninth inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 10<\/p>\n

Angels third baseman Donovan Walton leaps over shortstop Zach Neto after Neto misplayed a pop fly double by Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Junior Caminero during the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 30, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O\u2019Meara)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014Zach Neto was able to smile and slap hands with his teammates as they piled into the clubhouse after the Angels\u2019 14-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday, which no doubt provided relief to anyone who had seen what happened a little earlier.<\/p>\n

The Angels\u2019 shortstop lay on the field for a few minutes after a home-plate collision<\/a> in the seventh inning, a serious enough situation to get him to come out of a game for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just got a little whiplash,\u201d Neto said. \u201cI\u2019m a little sore right now in the neck area, but I\u2019m all good.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just trying to score a run and I did,\u201d Neto said. \u201cI knew it was going to be a rough impact at the plate, but I was just making sure I was there safe and I\u2019ll deal with the consequences after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neto said he\u2019s \u201cconfident\u201d he\u2019ll be able to play on Sunday, but they\u2019ll decide in the morning.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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

\u201cI thought they had a good approach from the beginning,\u201d manager Kurt Suzuki said. \u201cRasmussen\u2019s tough. He\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meckler continues to be a revelation for the Angels. They called him up from Double-A just over a week ago<\/a>, 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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year even in the minor leagues I\u2019ve been doing a better job of backspinning the ball to the pull side,\u201d Meckler said. \u201cIt\u2019s always been kind of the thing that\u2019s limited the power. Just better spin on the ball this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cA home run\u2019s better than a sac fly but the main thing for me in that at-bat was getting the job done,\u201d Meckler said.<\/p>\n

The Angels\u2019 season-high in runs helped get a victory for starter Reid Detmers on a day that he said he had to \u201cgrind\u201d through five innings. He gave up three runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI threw some really good pitches and they had a really good approach,\u201d Detmers said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t swinging at anything in and down. Props to them. They rose my pitch count pretty good and got me out of there in five.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detmers threw 32 pitches in the first inning, including Yandy Diaz\u2019s third homer in the first 10 innings of the series. The Rays loaded the bases, but he didn\u2019t give up any other runs.<\/p>\n

Detmers settled in for a few innings after that<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Jos\u00e9 Fermin created much more drama than the Angels wanted to see when he walked the bottom two hitters in the Rays\u2019 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\u2019 final threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 14-3, but it didn\u2019t seem like that for most of the game,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cBach 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angels third baseman Donovan Walton leaps over shortstop Zach Neto after Neto misplayed a pop fly double by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[24227,3817,110,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-290657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}