The Rays have taken this series from the Yankees by leaning into the simplest thing in baseball: playing it.
Tampa Bay won Game 1 by a run behind Drew Rasmussen, who carried a no-hitter into the eighth, then followed that up with a 5-2 win in Game 2 after New York committed four errors, including three in the first inning. No postseason team had done that since the 1975 A’s. One more win Wednesday at Yankee Stadium and the Rays complete the sweep.
What makes Tampa Bay stand out is not some hidden formula cooked up in a conference room. It’s the bunt. The Rays bunted 129 times this season, 40 more than the second-place Brewers, and their 84 bunts for hits were 30 more than any other team.
Kevin Cash said it wasn’t some grand plan from opening day.
"We didn't come into the season saying, 'We're going to bunt a lot more this year,'" Kevin Cash said. "It just kind of evolved. It caught fire, and guys would come in and say, 'Hey, I can do that.'"
He also made clear it wasn’t a one-size-fits-all directive.
"We don't ask Junior [Caminero] to bunt. Or Yandy [Diaz].
Or [Jonathan] Aranda. But we have some guys who can do it."
That’s the Rays in a nutshell: a manager and a clubhouse noticing a strength, then letting it breathe instead of forcing it into a spreadsheet-friendly box. Analytics live in every front office, Tampa’s included. This one grew from the players and from what the eye test kept showing.
Joe Maddon, who managed these Rays for nine seasons under Andrew Friedman, made his own case this week on Foul Territory. "Voices in the back of your head when you're in the dugout are awful," he said, and he added that "the game today would rather lose analytically than win based on feel." Maddon has been making that argument for years, pushing the idea that experience and feel still matter when the numbers stop telling the whole story.
The Yankees, meanwhile, have looked stuck in the other direction.
Aaron Boone kept the same lineup from Game 1 to Game 2, including Ryan McMahon at third base because he wanted "to prioritize the defense." McMahon finished the year at minus-3 defensive runs saved, 87th among 130 third basemen with at least 800 innings, and on the second pitch of the game he misplayed a Yandy Díaz chopper. Boone said he considered Anthony Volpe, but did not want Volpe’s second career start at third base to happen in a playoff game.
New York’s problems aren’t just about lineup choices, of course. Aaron Judge is out, and the Yankees managed only one hit in Game 1, the fewest in franchise postseason history. Still, Boone’s decision not to shake things up for Game 2 invites the obvious questions, especially with the team now down 0-2 and heading back home.
That scrutiny isn’t new. After Boone’s Deivi García opener in the 2020 ALDS against these same Rays drew criticism, Brian Cashman pushed back on the idea that Boone was simply following the front office or analytics team, and Boone said his decisions were his own.
The difference in this series has been pretty clear: Tampa Bay is trusting what it sees and finding ways to win with feel, while the Yankees look like they’re trying to stay loyal to the script. Facing elimination, they could use a little less caution and a little more of the Rays’ looseness.
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It is a notable idea because Garcas old position is also the one where he has had trouble before, and the Yankees know any move there would be about more than simply finding an open glove. If Garca can handle second again, it would change the way the organization views him and add a layer of flexibility Boone values, but for now it remains one of the quieter offseason questions hanging over a roster that is still being sorted out. [Read more 🡒]