Yankees’ Four Errors Cost Them in 5-2 Loss to Rays, Leave New York Down 0-2 in ALDS

The Yankees did not just lose Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Monday night. They gave it away in pieces.

New York committed four errors in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, falling into a 2-0 hole in the best-of-five series and moving to the edge of elimination. Three of those errors came in the first inning, immediately putting the Yankees on their heels and setting the shape of a game they never fully recovered from.

That defensive unraveling was the story. MLB’s recap said the Yankees’ three first-inning errors tied a postseason record for most errors in a first inning. Their four errors overall tied the second-most in franchise postseason history; the club record is five, set in Game 2 of the 1976 ALCS.

The opening inning showed exactly the kind of game Tampa Bay wanted. Yandy Díaz reached when third baseman Ryan McMahon misplayed a chopper. Jonathan Aranda followed with a single. Then, on Junior Caminero’s ball, shortstop George Lombard Jr. flipped to Jazz Chisholm Jr. for a force, but Chisholm’s off-balance throw sailed past first base and into the Rays’ dugout, allowing Díaz to score. Later in the inning, catcher Austin Wells was charged with catcher’s interference on a checked swing, another mistake in a frame that forced Yankees starter Cam Schlittler to work through traffic almost from the start.

That pressure mattered even after New York briefly pulled even. Ben Rice supplied the Yankees’ only offense, hitting a solo homer in the fourth inning to tie the game at 1-1. Freddy Peralta, Tampa Bay’s starter, worked 4 2/3 innings and was charged with that run before Ian Seymour took over and covered multiple innings out of the bullpen.

But the Yankees’ defensive problems resurfaced as soon as the game tightened. In the fifth, Aranda singled and Caminero doubled to put Tampa Bay back in business. Liam Hicks brought home a run with a groundout, and Richie Palacios followed with a two-run single after another sequence of defensive trouble by New York. What had been a tied game became a three-run Rays lead, and this time the Yankees had no answer.

Schlittler, described in coverage as the Yankees’ ace and a leading AL Cy Young candidate, lasted 5 1/3 innings and struck out two before Brent Headrick relieved him as Tampa Bay widened the margin. Rice added another solo homer in the eighth, but by then it only accounted for the final score.

The game looked like a warning the Yankees had already heard. Earlier in the week, manager Aaron Boone said, “You’ve got to take care of the ball against them. If you’re clean there, there’s outs to be had.”

Against the Rays, who consistently put the ball in play and forced New York to execute, the Yankees were anything but clean.

Now the series shifts to New York for Game 3 on Wednesday with the Yankees facing elimination. The history is daunting: MLB noted that teams that take a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five postseason series have gone on to win 83 of 93 times. The last team to erase an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five ALDS was the 2017 Yankees.