The Yankees knew exactly how Tampa Bay likes to play, and still could not keep the game from getting away Monday night. Four defensive errors, plus the Rays’ usual pressure on balls in play, sent New York to a 5-2 loss in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Tropicana Field.
Now the Yankees are headed home down 2-0 in the best-of-five set, with their season suddenly hanging over every inning. Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, with TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max carrying the broadcast.
Quick facts
- Tampa Bay beat New York, 5-2, in ALDS Game 2 at Tropicana Field.
- The Yankees committed four errors, matching the second-highest total in club postseason history.
- Ben Rice supplied New York’s first run of the series with a fourth-inning home run.
- Cam Schlittler was charged with the loss after Tampa Bay repeatedly reached against him early.
- Teams leading 2-0 in best-of-five postseason series have won 83 of 93 series, an 89% rate.
Manager Aaron Boone had pointed to the assignment before the series began. Against the Rays, he said, clean defense is essential because their speed and contact can create outs for a club that handles the baseball properly.
That did not happen in the opening inning. Yandy Díaz reached when Ryan McMahon mishandled a ground ball at third, beginning a sequence that included three Yankees miscues.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. made an errant throw on a fielder’s choice, and catcher Austin Wells was called for interference. Díaz came home with the game’s first run as Tampa Bay made New York pay without needing much hard contact.
The Rays put their leadoff hitter aboard in four of the five innings worked by Schlittler. The Yankees starter fought through a heavy workload, throwing 41 pitches over the first two frames and 53 through three, but Tampa Bay kept forcing action.
Rice gave the Yankees a brief reset in the fourth, launching a homer against Freddy Peralta to even the score. It was New York’s first run of the ALDS after the club managed only one hit in Game 1.
Peralta permitted three hits in 4 2/3 innings. The Yankees had a chance to take control in the fifth, but Cody Bellinger’s deep fly to center ended the inning with the bases loaded.
Tampa Bay turned the game again in the bottom half. Jonathan Aranda singled in front of right fielder Spencer Jones, then Junior Caminero drove a ball to the right-center wall for a double.
Liam Hicks brought in a run with a groundout. Chandler Simpson then chopped a ball that shortstop George Lombard Jr. could not convert; the play was initially recorded as an error before being revised to a fielder’s choice.
Brent Headrick entered after Schlittler’s exit and struck out Victor Mesa Jr. before Jonny DeLuca hit a grounder that Lombard threw away at first. Richie Palacios, a Brooklyn native who has described himself as a lifelong Yankees fan, followed with a two-run single to center that stretched the Rays’ lead.
The four-error night tied New York’s second-largest postseason error total. Only the five-error Game 2 loss to Kansas City in the 1976 American League Championship Series was worse.
History offers little comfort, though the Yankees have been here before. They were the last club to erase an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five postseason series, rallying past Cleveland in the 2017 ALDS after losing the opening two games.
The current numbers are steep: clubs that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five have finished the job 83 times in 93 tries. In Division Series played under the present 2-2-1 format, teams winning the first two games at home have advanced in 33 of 36 cases.
New York also leaves St. Petersburg with a troubling recent record in the building, having lost seven of nine games at Tropicana Field this season, postseason included. The Yankees will need cleaner innings, sharper execution and a much different result Wednesday to keep this October from ending early.
