ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The New York Yankees did not walk into this series blind. Thirteen regular-season meetings with the Tampa Bay Rays showed them exactly what October would look like at Tropicana Field.
Grounders chopped into the turf. Runners sprinting on every ball in play. Infielders forced to throw on the move.
The message inside the Yankees clubhouse was simple. Before the American League Division Series opened, players stressed the need to “take care of the ball” and “play clean” against an AL East rival built on contact and speed.
The worry had numbers behind it. New York committed 96 errors in the regular season, tied for second most in the American League and more than any other playoff team.
Manager Aaron Boone rejected that framing. Meeting with beat writers before Game 1, he pushed back on any suggestion that his infield was a liability.
“If you’re implying we’re a bad defense, no, we’re not,” Boone said.
When the question surfaced again, Boone offered a more measured answer. He argued the good stretches had been overlooked.
“At times we’ve been very good, and people don’t acknowledge it. At times, we’ve been bad,” Boone said.
The Yankees entered Monday down 1-0 after Drew Rasmussen took a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 1-0 Game 1 loss. The Yankees managed one hit. Boone kept the same lineup anyway. Aaron Judge remains out with a calf injury. New York had dropped six of eight games in St. Petersburg this season.
The pitching staff handed Game 2 to its best arm, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner. Cam Schlittler had overwhelmed Boston in the wild-card opener with 10 strikeouts and 24 swings and misses over 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
All the Yankees needed behind him was routine defense. Then the bad version arrived, and it never left.
The Rays beat the Yankees 5-2 on Monday night in Game 2 of the ALDS, turning four New York errors and a four-run fifth inning into a 2-0 series lead before a sellout crowd of 40,226. The Yankees now need three straight wins, starting Wednesday in the Bronx, to save their season.
A first inning that matched a 51-year-old record
Third baseman Ryan McMahon let a Yandy Díaz chopper skip off his glove on Schlittler’s second pitch. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then spun and threw wide on a double-play try, scoring Díaz. Austin Wells wiped out an apparent strikeout with catcher’s interference.
It was the first three-error postseason inning in Yankees history. It also tied the MLB record for a first inning, last set by Oakland in the 1975 ALCS.
Schlittler limited it to one unearned run. Ben Rice tied it with a leadoff homer off Freddy Peralta in the fourth. In the fifth, Cody Bellinger drove a bases-loaded fly 405 feet that died at the wall. Cam Booser escaped it for the win.
Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero hit safely before a Liam Hicks RBI groundout. A Chandler Simpson chopper that rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. could not handle scored another and ended Schlittler’s night.
Lombard then threw wide on Jonny DeLuca’s grounder, and Richie Palacios lined a two-run single off Brent Headrick for a 5-1 lead. Rice homered again in the eighth. Bryan Baker worked a perfect ninth for the save.
Yankees say they handed Tampa Bay the game
Schlittler took the loss after allowing four runs, two earned, in 4 1/3 innings. Boone blamed the pitch count.
“I think it’s maybe a different story there if we take care of the ball and he’s at 25-30 pitches instead after the first two [innings] and gets in a rhythm,” Boone said.
Schlittler credited Tampa Bay’s approach instead.
“It’s what they do,” Schlittler said. “I let up runs like that in April against them, just choppers in the infield.”
Chisholm, whose throw opened the scoring, was blunter.
“It’s a tough loss. We beat ourselves today, in a lot of ways,” Chisholm said.
Rice makes history as an old Yankees nightmare returns
Rice became the first Yankee with two multihomer games in one postseason and the first MLB player with two in his team’s first four playoff games. Both Yankees runs in the series are his solo shots. The Yankees are 5-for-58 (.086).
The four errors tied for second most in 448 Yankees postseason games, behind five in the 1976 ALCS. It was the second four-error playoff game under Boone, after Game 4 of the 2019 ALCS.
More Yankees committed errors, four, than got hits, three. No postseason team had done that since Cincinnati was no-hit by Roy Halladay in 2010. The night echoed the fifth inning that sank Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.
A road October drought now six games deep
The Yankees have lost six straight road playoff games: two in Los Angeles in the 2024 World Series, two in Toronto in the 2025 ALDS and two this week.
Their last road postseason win came Oct. 19, 2024, the pennant clincher in Cleveland, 716 days before Game 2.
Fried gets the ball with the season on the line
Teams leading 2-0 in a best-of-five series have advanced 83 of 93 times. The last club to rally from 0-2 was the 2017 Yankees, against Cleveland.
Max Fried (5-5, 2.80 ERA) is projected to face Nick Martinez (15-6, 3.10) in Game 3 at 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
Boone framed Wednesday plainly.
“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.”
The Yankees fly home trailing 2-0, one loss from elimination.
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