The Yankees had plenty of company in their ALDS exit, but the clearest difference between them and the Guardians may have been right there in the batter’s box.
New York got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in three games, and while the pitching staff held up its end, the offense vanished. The Yankees managed only five runs and 12 hits in the series, a sharp falloff after they had put up 18 runs over two games while sweeping the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card round. Aaron Judge was out with a calf strain, but the lineup still never found its footing against Tampa Bay.
A rival American League executive told FanSided the Yankees’ issues started with the way they approached the series.
"(The) Yankees just pressed and started chasing," the executive said. "(The) game sped up on them."
That played right into Tampa Bay’s hands. The Rays built their identity around making hitters expand the zone, and they were excellent at it during the regular season, finishing first in the AL and second in MLB with a 32.8 percent chase rate, according to Baseball Savant.
New York, by comparison, chased 29.3 percent of the time in the regular season, which ranked ninth in MLB. In the ALDS, though, that discipline disappeared.
Game 1 set the tone. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen worked eight shutout innings of one-hit ball and posted a 37 percent chase rate.
Yankees hitters offered at his changeup 69 percent of the time. Rasmussen finished with 23 swinging strikes, a career high and a Rays postseason record.
The swing-and-miss only piled up from there. New York struck out 31 times over the three-game series.
Ben Rice was the lone Yankee hitter to leave with much to feel good about, homering twice and driving in three runs. Anthony Volpe and George Lombard Jr. combined for four hits and an RBI in Game 3.
The sloppiness wasn’t limited to the offense. The Yankees committed four errors in Game 2, and they could have been charged with five.
There were also several misplays in that game. Still, even with the defense unraveling, the biggest problem for New York was the lack of production at the plate.
Cleveland showed a different version of what can happen against Tampa Bay. In Game 1 of the ALCS, the Guardians’ offense erupted for seven runs on 14 hits in a win over the Rays. Unlike the Yankees, the Guardians were not a team that chased often, ranking seventh in baseball in chase rate during the regular season.
For the Yankees, the lesson from the series was plain: pressing and chasing against Tampa Bay is a losing formula.
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