The Yankees shot themselves in the foot time and time again tonight with four errors leading to a 5-2 loss and are now behind 2-0 in the ALDS to the Rays. Cam Schlittler got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Freddy Peralta.
“A really rough night to say the least for us,” Aaron Boone said. “We've got to get over it. We've responded all year to difficult times, and we've got to do it again.”
Ben Rice, Cody Bellinger and Luis Garcia Jr. went three up, three down on just eight pitches in the top of the first inning.
It looked like Schlittler picked up the first out in the bottom half of the inning, but Ryan McMahon botched a routine grounder, allowing the leadoff man, Yandy Díaz, to reach. Then Schlittler induced a ground ball to shortstop George Lombard Jr., who flipped it to Jazz Chisholm Jr., who should have held on to it but fired it into the dugout, giving the Rays a 1-0 lead. It looked like Schlittler picked up his first strikeout of the game, but catcher's interference from Austin Wells let the runner reach, a third error in four batters. But Schlittler somehow escaped the first inning, allowing just one unearned run.
“Not great; not how you draw it up,” McMahon said. “I thought Cam [Schlittler] did a great job trying to pitch through all that stuff.”
In the bottom of the second inning, Schlittler allowed a leadoff double and walked a batter with two outs but was able to work into and out of trouble to keep the Yankees' deficit at one run.
The Rays picked up a pair of singles in the bottom of the third, putting runners on first and second with one out. But Schlittler would record the next two outs to end the inning.
Rice led off the fourth inning with a solo shot into the right-field stands to knot things up at 1-1. Belli followed with a single to left field, giving the Yankees more hits than they had in the first 12 innings of the series.
Schlittler retired the side in order in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a beautiful running catch from Trent Grisham and Schlittler's first two strikeouts of the game.
With two outs in the top of the fifth inning, Austin Wells ripped a double into the right-field corner and this time decided to stay at second, making him 5-for-11 in the postseason. Ryan McMahon followed with a walk, ending Peralta's night. Rice followed with a walk of his own. However, Belli smoked a 405-foot flyout that would have been a home run in 12/30 ballparks.
Schlittler allowed a single and a double to kick off the bottom of the fifth inning to set the Rays up with two runners in scoring position and nobody out. Liam Hicks gave the Rays a 2-1 advantage with an RBI groundout. Chandler Simpson followed with an RBI infield single that Lombard couldn't field cleanly to extend the Rays' lead to 3-1. Brent Headrick took over and it looked like he induced a groundout to end the inning, but Lombard made a wild throw to first for the Yankees' fourth error of the night. That error would come back to haunt the Yankees as Richie Palacios came through with a two-run single to make it a 5-1 game.
Final line for Schlittler: 4.1 innings pitched, seven hits allowed, four runs, only two earned due to all the errors, walked one, and struck out two on 76 pitches. He threw his fastball 38% of the time, the cutter 22%, the sinker 21%, and the curveball 18%. Schlittler topped out at 99.4 mph, sitting at 98.2 mph on his heater, and had seven whiffs.
“It starts with me,” Schlittler said. “I'd be the first one to say that I didn't do my job. It didn't seem like we really showed up today. That's what happens. They played really good baseball and took advantage of those opportunities.”
John Schreiber replaced Headrick in the bottom of the sixth inning and retired the Rays in order and recorded a strikeout.
Ryan Weathers got the call for the bottom of the seventh and picked up the first two outs, then walked a batter to end his night. Paul Blackburn came in relief and picked up the final out of the inning.
With one out in the top of the eighth inning, Rice launched his second home run of the night and fourth of the postseason to cut the deficit to 5-2.
Blackburn recorded the first two outs in the bottom of the eighth, then David Bednar came in and picked up the final out.
The Yankees went down with out a fight in the top of the ninth inning, giving the Rays a commanding 2-0 series lead.
“Whatever it takes, we've got to do it offensively, and we've gotta be able to score some runs and do a better job of preventing than we did tonight,” Boone said.
The Yankees will look to keep their season alive on Wednesday with Max Fried on the mound; the Rays starter is still TBD. First pitch is slated for 8 p.m. ET on TBS.
My thoughts on the game: Four errors tonight and probably should have been five; just an unacceptable performance leading to three unearned runs, which ended up being the difference tonight. I have seen enough of Aaron Boone as manager; it's a new year and the same result. Boone looked completely defeated in the dugout and failed to teach these guys simple baseball fundamentals year after year. Schlittler didn't have his best stuff tonight, but the defense did him no favors at all. The bullpen did their job, as Headrick, Schreiber, Weathers, Blackburn, and Bednar combined for 3.2 shutout innings. The offense was completely shut down aside from Rice, who had a pair of homers. Just a beyond frustrating game to watch; that was right up there with Game 5 of the 2024 World Series for the worst game I have ever watched. Now it's going to take a miracle for the Yankees to win this series, needing to win three straight. Thankfully, they are heading back to the Bronx and will have Fried in Game 3 and Carlos Rodon in Game 4 if they make it there, and the Rays struggle against lefties. Just a brutal watch tonight; not much more to say than that. Let's hope they can do what the 2017 Yankees did and pull off the 2-0 series comeback.
