ST. PETERSBURG, FL. — The New York Yankees had a meltdown on defense Monday night at Tropicana Field.
They were charged with four errors — there could have been more — and it proved costly in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, who now lead 2-0 in the American League Division Series. Tampa Bay could advance to the A.L. Championship Series with a victory in New York on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees were an error short of tying the franchise record of five set in Game 2 of the 1976 A.L. Championship Series against the Royals.
“Obviously, a really rough night to say the least for us,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “We’ve got to get over it. We’ve responded all year to difficult times, and we’ve got to do that again. We’ve got to get ourselves up off the mat. Obviously, tonight was just not good enough for us and certainly not good enough to beat (the Rays). We’ve got to get over it, and play for our lives (Wednesday night).”
The game was tough to watch starting with the bottom of the first. With Yankees ace Cam Schlittler on the mound, the first error came when Yandy Díaz led off and hit a hard grounder that went passed the glove of third baseman Ryan McMahon.
“The ball just kicked up on me,” McMahon said.
After Jonathan Aranda singled to put runners on first and second, Junior Caminero hit a slow ground ball to shortstop George Lombard Jr., who threw to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. to get the force out at second, but Chisholm threw the ball past first baseman Luis García Jr. for the second error of the frame and that allowed Díaz to score the first run of the game.
If he had to do it over again, Chisholm said he would still make the throw to first base.
“I would try to make an even better throw,” Chisholm acknowledged. “I would try to throw it close to the base. My back was turned.”
The next hitter was Liam Hicks and he reached first base on catcher’s interference by Austin Wells.
“Honestly. I caught the ball before he even hit my glove,” Wells said. “It was such a weird one. I thought I was back enough. The ball was by him. I don’t think I was too close. It’s the way Hicks swung the bat on that check swing. …Obviously, that can’t happen on an 0-2 count ever with Cam on the mound.”
Considering the mistakes, Schlittler held it together, allowing just the one unearned run on 19 pitches.
“Cam did a great job picking us up,” Chisholm said.
Schlittler, who lasted 4.1 innings, declined to put blame on the defense behind him.
“It starts with me. I will be first to say, ’I didn’t do my job.’ That’s what happens,” he said to reporters. The Rays played really good baseball. They took advantage of those opportunities.”
After the first inning ended, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were waiting for their teammates to enter the dugout. They were cheering them on, telling them that the game was far from over. Judge, the best player on the team, is off the postseason roster because of a right calf injury. Stanton, on the other hand, is on the postseason roster, but he is limited to pinch-hitting duties because of calf problems.
“That’s why they are our leaders. They are in there every at-bat and every inning,” Chisholm recalled. “Every time we came off the field, they were just saying, ‘Hey, let’s go. We’ve done it before. We keep our heads up. We play until the last out and the last pitch.’”
The Yankees managed to tie the game at 1 in the fourth, when Ben Rice took a 2-2 pitch from Freddy Peralta and hit the ball over the right-field wall.
The Yankees had a chance to take the lead an inning later. They had the bases loaded with two out when Cody Bellinger came to the plate to face Cam Booser. Bellinger hit the ball hard to center field, but Jonny Deluca caught the ball in front of the wall to end the frame.
“I thought we started to put together some really good at-bats, especially in the fifth inning where we chased Peralta and Belly puts a good swing on it, hits it to the fence. That’s unfortunate there,” Boone said.
But New York’s defense wasn’t at its best in the bottom of the fifth, when Tampa Bay scored two runs. Lombard was charged with an error that allowed the inning to be extended for Tampa Bay. It allowed Richie Polacios to drive in a run with a single.
Now the Yankees’ backs are against the wall, and they’ll need to try to win two games at home to force the series back to Tropicana Field.
“It starts one play, one inning at a time,” Boone said. “So we can’t play like (we did on Monday) and expect a win. So we’ve got to come out Wednesday night. Everything’s on the line. It’s obviously all hands on deck, and we’ve got to try and get one and then go from there. So we’re capable of doing it. This team has been really good at picking themselves up all year. “
All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.