ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees spent two days talking about the kind of baseball Tampa Bay wanted to force on them. The Rays would shorten swings, run hard, make defenders move and keep putting the ball on the ground until something cracked.
By the end of Monday night, the Yankees had supplied the crack themselves.
New York lost 5-2 in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Tropicana Field and fell into a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five matchup. The Yankees committed four errors, three in the first inning, and several other plays required recovery efforts just to avoid more damage.
The score remained close for much of the night. Ben Rice erased Tampa Bay’s early lead with a solo homer in the fourth. Cam Schlittler kept surviving traffic. Then the Rays broke a 1-1 tie with four runs in the fifth and sent the Yankees back to the Bronx needing three straight wins to stay alive.
Cam Booser earned the win after recording the final out of the fifth. Schlittler took the loss after allowing four runs, two earned, in 4 1/3 innings. Bryan Baker worked the ninth for his second save of the series.
The Yankees still have a path back. MLB postseason history shows that the path is narrow. Teams leading a best-of-five series 2-0 have advanced 83 times in 93 tries. Teams that won the first two games at home under the current Division Series format advanced 33 times in 36 tries. The 2017 Yankees are the last team to erase an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series.
That history makes every missed out heavier. It also turns something Aaron Boone said before the series into one of the most uncomfortable quotes surrounding the Yankees after Game 2.
Boone’s defense answer meets its first October test
Before the ALDS began, Boone was asked about the idea that opponents could gain an advantage simply by putting the ball in play against the Yankees. The question touched a familiar nerve because New York’s defensive execution has been questioned in previous postseasons.
Boone pushed back.
“That’s just at times we’ve been very good and people don’t acknowledge it,” Boone said. “At times we have been bad, so I don’t get caught up in it. We’re trying to prepare as best we can to maximize our guys and our team. So if you’re implying with that question we’re a bad defense, no, we’re not.”
Game 2 produced the kind of evidence that will keep the question alive.
Ryan McMahon booted Yandy Diaz’s grounder on Schlittler’s second pitch. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then threw outside the base while trying to complete a double play, allowing Diaz to score. Austin Wells was charged with catcher’s interference later in the inning.
The three first-inning errors tied an MLB postseason record for errors in a first inning. The Yankees finished with four, matching the second-highest total in franchise postseason history. Only the five errors in Game 2 of the 1976 AL Championship Series were worse.
A two-game Yankees ledger shows how small the margin has become
The Yankees have produced five hits in 18 innings of this ALDS. They have also committed four errors. Their only two runs have come on Rice’s two solo home runs in Game 2.
That creates a brutal equation for a club playing without injured captain Aaron Judge. The Yankees have generated almost no offensive cushion, which means defensive mistakes carry outsized weight.
Tampa Bay has been built to exploit exactly that kind of margin. The Rays do not need to dominate with home runs when extra outs, rushed throws and balls in play can lengthen innings.
New York escaped the first inning trailing only 1-0, but the fifth inning showed why the pattern could not continue. Tampa Bay stacked contact, pressure and another Yankees error into a four-run rally.
Boone did not minimize the damage afterward.
“It’s going to be a rough ride back,” Boone said. “You’ve got to find out what you’re made of. It’s gut-check time.”
Yankees return home with no room left for another defensive night
The Yankees will hand Game 3 to Max Fried on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. Tampa Bay is scheduled to start Nick Martinez.
The assignment is straightforward. The Yankees need a cleaner game behind Fried and more production from a lineup that has been held to five hits in the series.
Boone’s pre-series defense of his club will now follow the Yankees into the Bronx because Monday did more than produce a loss. It exposed the exact weakness the Rays were expected to test.
Chisholm acknowledged that the Yankees created much of their own trouble.
“It’s a tough loss. We beat ourselves today, in a lot of ways,” Chisholm said. “These are some of the best defenders I’ve ever played with. For me, it hurts us a little bit more than you think.”
The Yankees can still change the direction of the series. They cannot change what Game 2 put on tape.
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