ST. PETERSBURG — The Yankees arrived in October believing their rotation could carry a deep run, but the first night of the American League Division Series belonged to Tampa Bay’s arm rather than New York’s collection of aces.
Drew Rasmussen took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and the Rays edged the Yankees, 1-0, in Saturday’s Game 1 at Tropicana Field. Jonathan Aranda’s third-inning homer against Gerrit Cole stood as the entire scoring line.
Rasmussen turns the Trop into a tough room
- The building opened with an unusually forceful home-field feel for a Yankees-Rays game in St. Petersburg. A towel-waving crowd of 40,542 made noise from the opening pitch, rather than allowing the familiar Bronx South atmosphere New York often finds at the Trop.
- Rasmussen took command of the night, working around only two walks while piling up 10 strikeouts. The right-hander did not allow a hit through seven innings.
- Austin Wells finally reached Rasmussen with a two-out double in the eighth. Wells tried to turn it into a triple and was thrown out, ending New York’s only hit of the game.
- Cole kept the Yankees within one run over five innings in his first postseason outing since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. He gave up five hits, issued one walk and struck out five.
- Aranda supplied the decisive swing in the third, driving a Cole pitch out for a solo homer.
The Yankees had just scored 18 runs while sweeping the Red Sox in two games in the American League Wild Card Series. Rasmussen shut down that momentum with a crisp, overpowering performance, one that carried echoes of Sept. 22 in New York, when he also held the Yankees without a hit into the seventh as Tampa Bay secured the AL East title.
New York’s one-hit finish set an unwanted postseason low for the franchise. The Yankees have now played 447 playoff games, 137 more than any other club, and had never previously managed fewer than two hits in one of them.
A rotation test shifts to Game 2
Manager Aaron Boone has pointed to Gerrit Cole, Cam Schlittler, Carlos Rodón and Max Fried as a group capable of delivering a major start on any given night. Cole did enough to give his club a chance, but Rasmussen made one run plenty.
Schlittler will take the ball for New York in Monday’s Game 2, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max. Before the series, Schlittler expected plenty of Yankees support in the stands, saying there is usually not much of a true road crowd there and that it can “to an extent” feel like playing at home.
Game 1 made clear that this one may not follow that script. The Rays had the noise, the only homer and the commanding starting-pitching performance.
The historical hole
The Yankees now face the usual pressure attached to an opening loss in a best-of-five series. Teams that have taken a 1-0 lead have advanced 116 times in 160 such postseason matchups, a 73 percent rate. In Division Series using the 2-2-1 setup, home teams winning Game 1 have won 42 of 56 series, or 75 percent.
For New York, the immediate assignment is simple: let Schlittler answer Rasmussen’s masterpiece, find a few more cracks in the Rays’ pitching, and bring the series back level before it heads north.
