Cam Schlittler went into the Yankees’ ALDS opener sounding plenty confident about the atmosphere waiting for him at Tropicana Field. He figured the place would be heavy on New York fans, even saying the Yankees would be “kind of playing at home”.
That prediction didn’t hold up in Game 1.
Tampa Bay’s crowd showed up in a big way for the opener, and the Rays made it count on the field. Drew Rasmussen shut down the Yankees’ offense, Austin Wells made a costly baserunning mistake, and Jonathan Aranda’s third-inning homer wound up being the swing hit in the game. The blast drew a loud reaction from the building, which did not feel like a road environment for the Rays.
The attendance number backed that up, too. Game 1 drew 40,542 fans, the largest crowd at Tropicana Field since Game 5 of the 2010 ALDS. Yes, plenty of those seats were filled by Yankees fans, but the overall feel, at least from the Rays’ side, was unmistakable.
“Best I’ve heard it ever in my 12 years, and I’ve never seen it like this,” Kevin Cash said, per The Athletic's Will Sammon. “So, very excited and appreciative of our fans.”
After the game, Taylor Walls said it can usually be tough to tell which fanbase has the upper hand in Rays-Yankees games at Tropicana, while Rasmussen said Game 1 sounded like a Rays-heavy crowd.
Schlittler’s pregame read would have fit the regular season more than October. Tampa Bay averaged 17,469 fans per game this year, third-lowest in MLB, but the postseason brought a different scene entirely. In other words, the idea that New York was “kind of playing at home” didn’t match what actually happened on Saturday.
Now the spotlight shifts back to Schlittler for Game 2, with the Yankees trying to avoid a familiar October problem. The setup has echoes of last year’s ALDS against the Blue Jays, when New York ran into a hot Toronto team and a loud Rogers Centre crowd.
And if Schlittler is counting on the noise to bother him, that may not be the way he operates. He has a habit of leaning into the jeers, and that’s part of why he keeps taking shots at opposing fanbases. If the Yankees get another road gem out of him, they won’t care how many Rays fans are in the building.
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