The Yankees did a lot of the damage themselves Monday night, and the Rays were happy to keep turning the screw.
New York’s defense cracked at the worst possible times in a 5-2 loss at Tropicana Field, leaving the Yankees down 0-2 in the best-of-five Division Series. The series now heads toward a possible sweep Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
The night started with a mess in the first inning. Ryan McMahon booted a routine grounder, Austin Wells turned a strikeout into a baserunner on catcher’s interference, and Jazz Chisholm then looked shaky on a pair of plays that helped the Rays cash in for an unearned run and a 1-0 lead. Chisholm said it plainly afterward: “I feel like we beat ourselves in a lot of ways.”
The Rays kept leaning into that pressure. With Chandler Simpson running around as the fastest player in the majors, the infield kept having to make rushed decisions, and New York kept coming up short. Chisholm’s throw on a chopper behind second base in the opening frame sailed down the line, and later in the inning he hurried a flip that was well off the bag and over George Lombard Jr.’s head before Lombard made a last-second save with his leg.
Wells said the Rays force those kinds of mistakes by design.
“I feel like that’s what the Rays do,” Wells said. “They put pressure on you.
They’re fast. They bust their butt out of the box, so they make you feel like you have to do more.
That’s not how you draw it up there for sure. but that’s just what they do honestly.
“You’ve just gotta stay calm, cool, collected, and take the outs they give you.”
Cam Schlittler and the Yankees managed to survive that first-inning scramble while trailing by only a run, and Ben Rice tied it 1-1 with a leadoff homer in the fourth after three scoreless, 1-2-3 innings. But the game swung hard in the fifth.
New York loaded the bases with two outs, only for Cody Bellinger to come up just short of a grand slam with a drive to the center-field wall. The Rays answered immediately. Jonathan Aranda singled, Junior Camerino doubled, and then Tampa Bay went right back to the formula that has given the Yankees trouble all series.
Liam Hicks dropped a soft bouncer to second that brought a run home, and Chandler Simpson followed with another weak chopper that should have been an out but turned into more trouble when Lombard fumbled it. The official scorer first called it an error, then changed it to a fielder’s choice about a half-hour later.
“I know they didn’t knock the cover off the ball, but putting pressure on the defense with Chandler and Hicksy, we value those guys a lot just from moving the baseball,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We talk about it a lot, and they did.”
The inning wasn’t done. Brent Headrick entered for Schlittler, Victor Mesa Jr. struck out, and then Jonny DeLuca hit a two-out grounder to short.
Lombard’s throw pulled Luis Garcia Jr. off first, the inning stayed alive, a stolen base created another scoring chance, and Richie Palacios lined a single to center. Trent Grisham’s throw home hit the mound, and two more runs crossed to make it 5-1.
Schlittler didn’t hide from the damage.
“I let up runs like that in April against them, just choppers in the infield,” he said. “But that’s what they do. They put pressure on you, and they find a way to get those runs across.”
Chisholm’s night was a rough one, and he was not alone. The Yankees finished with four errors, and the Rays’ constant traffic and pace made every defensive mistake feel bigger. Schlittler was even blunter than his teammates when he said, “It didn’t seem like we really showed up today, so that’s what happens.”
Wells, though, framed the game around what Tampa Bay kept forcing the Yankees to do - and what New York kept failing to handle.
“I thought they had great at bats, honestly,” Wells said. “They put the ball in play when they needed to.
They put pressure on. They hit good pitches.
They hit bad pitches.”
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