The Yankees are back in the Bronx with no room left to spare. Down two games to none to the Rays in the American League Division Series, they will send Max Fried to the mound Wednesday night needing the first win of a series Tampa Bay has controlled from the opening pitch.
Game 3 is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, with TBS, truTV, UniMas and HBO Max carrying the broadcast. The assignment is simple, even if the task is not: get one game, bring the series to Thursday, and give Yankee Stadium another October night to believe in.
Fried gets the ball as Yankees seek a turn
Aaron Boone put the situation plainly after Tampa Bay’s 5-2 victory in Game 2, a night on which New York committed as many errors as it collected hits.
“We have an opportunity to do something special,” Boone said. “We’ve answered adversity all year. We have to answer it again now.”
Fried arrives with a recent October performance the Yankees would gladly take again. In Game 2 of the Yankees-Red Sox Wild Card Series, he worked six innings, struck out six, allowed three hits and surrendered one run.
New York’s starting pitching has not been the principal problem in this series. Gerrit Cole and Cam Schlittler have combined to allow only three earned runs through the first two games. The club has leaned on a rotation built around accomplished arms: Cole and Schlittler in New York, Fried during his Atlanta years, and Carlos Rodón from his White Sox days.
But the Rays have been relentless. Drew Rasmussen was nearly untouchable in the opener, coming close to a no-hitter, and Tampa Bay has consistently put balls in play, tested the Yankee defense and avoided the mistakes that have hurt New York.
The Rays were 7-6 against the Yankees after clinching the division at Yankee Stadium in the final week of the regular season. Their two ALDS wins have pushed that season edge to 9-6.
Ben Rice has supplied the Yankees’ offense
New York scored 18 runs against Boston in the Wild Card Series. Against Tampa Bay, it has managed two runs in two games, both produced by Ben Rice home runs.
Rice is doing what he can to keep the lineup moving. Through four postseason games, he is batting .467 with four homers and eight RBIs. He carried the offense for long stretches while Aaron Judge was sidelined during the summer, and he has again become the club’s clearest source of damage at the plate.
The Yankees have played without Judge for months, yet still closed the regular season 45-30. Their challenge now is to create enough offense around Rice against a Rays club that has made every inning uncomfortable.
October history offers a familiar reminder
For a franchise that has lived through so many postseason turns, the most comforting memory may be the 2001 Division Series against Oakland.
The Yankees entered Game 3 of that matchup trailing 2-0 after losing the first two games at home. Oakland had also finished with the better regular-season record. With New York protecting a 1-0 lead in Game 3 on Oct. 13, Derek Jeter ranged across the infield to retrieve an errant relay and made his celebrated backhand flip to Jorge Posada, who tagged Jeremy Giambi at the plate.
That play helped swing the series. The Yankees won Game 3, took the series and reached the World Series, though they ultimately lost a seven-game Fall Classic to Arizona after failing to climb out of another two-game deficit.
There is more recent history, too. The Yankees rallied from an 0-2 ALDS deficit against the Guardians in 2017. Last October, Aaron Judge gave them a jolt in Game 3 against Toronto, driving a towering home run off the left-field foul pole as New York battled back from a 6-1 hole. The Yankees did not finish that comeback and their season ended the following night, but the swing gave them a chance after two rough games in Toronto.
Boone’s club is searching for that same opening now. The Rays have been the better team through two games, and New York is trying to avoid another celebration on its own field after Tampa Bay clinched the division in the Bronx, Toronto did the same a year earlier, and the Dodgers celebrated there in the 2024 World Series.
For the Yankees, the next step is not a comeback story yet. It is one start from Fried, one cleaner night in the field, and one win.
“We have to get a game,” Boone said.
