Yankees’ disastrous defense pushes season to brink with ALDS Game 2 loss to Rays
New York Post · RC · trust 35/100
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The stakes were not quite as high on Monday, but the Yankees turned in an even bigger defensive abomination to put themselves in a 2-0 hole in the ALDS.
Three errors in the bottom of the first inning somehow did not kill them, but it did set the tone for the night before another error in the fifth helped provide the dagger, sinking the Yankees in a 5-2 loss to the Rays in Game 2 of the ALDS witnessed by a raucous sellout crowd of 40,226 at Tropicana Field.
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The Yankees flew home licking their wounds with their season on life support, needing to clean up their act behind Max Fried in Game 3 and Carlos Rodón if they can get to Game 4 to have any chance of returning to Tropicana Field.
Of course, they will also have to find a way to score runs, which they have only done twice in 18 innings of this best-of-five series – on a pair of solo shots from Ben Rice on Monday after suffering a one-hit shutout in Game 1.
In a recurring theme of too many postseasons past, the Yankees melted from the Rays’ ability to put the ball in play and wreak havoc, even with Cam Schlittler on the mound, resulting in four errors – one shy of their franchise record for a single postseason game.
After Schlittler had been dominant against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the AL wild-card series, racking up a career-high 24 whiffs and 10 strikeouts across 6 1/3 shutout innings, he generated just seven whiffs and tied a career-low with two strikeouts across 4 1/3 innings. He gave up four runs, only two of which were earned, but the damage was done nonetheless.
Schlittler was the reason the Yankees survived a three-error bottom of the first – a new franchise record for the most in one inning of a playoff game – and Rice homered off Freddy Peralta in the fourth inning to give the Yankees their first signs of offensive life in the series. But after they left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, they lost the game in the bottom of the frame.
Jonathan Aranda, who homered for the only run in Game 1, led off with a sinking liner to right field that Spencer Jones did not get a good jump on as it fell for a single.
After Junior Caminero’s double put runners on second and third, Liam Hicks came up with the infield in – except Jazz Chisholm Jr. was a few steps onto the dirt at second base – and hit a weak tapper to Chisholm, who looked at home before taking the out at first as the Rays went up 2-1.
The infield was in again when the speedy Chandler Simpson hit a chopper to shortstop, where George Lombard Jr. could not get his backhand on it, allowing another run to score.
That led Aaron Boone to pull Schlittler, who looked stunned, for Brent Headrick, who got the second out on a strikeout. Then he generated a ground ball to shortstop that Lombard fielded and fired slightly off-target to first, where Luis García Jr. dropped it, putting runners on the corners.
Brooklyn’s Richie Palacios came up next and delivered the big swing, a two-run single to center field that put the Rays ahead 5-1.
Rice later homered again in the eighth off lefty Ian Seymour, but he could not pull the Yankees back all by himself.
The Yankees played a bottom of the first that was just about disastrous as possible, except by some miracle, Schlittler made sure it only resulted in a 1-0 deficit.
It began with Yandy Diaz’s leadoff chopper to third base that Ryan McMahon – who Boone considered replacing in the lineup for a better threat of offense but said he wanted to “prioritize the defense” – whiffed on for the first error.
After Aranda’s single through the right side, Caminero hit a grounder up the middle that Lombard ranged to and flipped to second base for the out. But Chisholm tried an off-balance, ill-advised throw to first for the double play, which instead bounced past the bag, allowing Diaz to score for the 1-0 lead.
The comedy of errors continued when Schlittler appeared to strike out Liam Hicks for the first out, except Hicks’ bat hit Austin Wells’ glove for a catcher’s inference.
Simpson then hit a grounder to second base where Chisholm fielded it and threw high to second base, pulling Lombard off the bag. The rookie was able to get his foot back in time to get the force out, but Chisholm’s throw wiped away any chance of a double play. Schlittler recovered by getting the third out on another ground ball.
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