About Last Night: Rays 5, Yankees 2

About Last Night: Rays 5, Yankees 2

By Derek McAdam

October 6, 2026

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The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the New York Yankees last night by a score of 5-2, bringing them one win away from an ALCS berth. Here’s a quick recap of last night’s game.

Quick Stats: W: Cam Booser: 0.1 IP, 1 BB

                     L: Cam Schlittler: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 2 K

                     S: Bryan Baker: 1 IP

HRs: NYY: Ben Rice (1,2.  3rd and 4th of post-season)

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The Yankees tied a postseason record with five errors last night. It was their most in a postseason game since the 2019 ALCS. (This was changed from four to five and then back to four.)

The Big Story: The Yankees were coming off a brutal 1-0 loss Saturday night in Game 1, getting only one hit off Drew Rasmussen and never having a runner in scoring position. The Yankees turned to their ace and projected AL Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler in hopes of evening the series heading back to New York. But more importantly, the Yankees were seeking to break their offense out against Freddy Peralta, who had been pitching much better since he was traded to Tampa at the deadline.

The Yankees got off to an absolutely abysmal start in the bottom of the 1st, when Ryan McMahon committed an error on a routine ground ball to third before Jonathan Aranda slapped a single into left field with no outs for Junior Caminero, who grounded into a fielder’s choice that allowed Yandy Diaz to score on an error from Jazz Chisholm Jr.

Liam Hicks then struck out looking on strike three, but reached on a catcher’s interference to put runners on first and second. Chandler Simpson grounded into a fielder’s choice, to which Chisholm nearly made another throwing error to shortstop. Somehow, Schlittler made it out of out of the inning without any additional damage.

In the 2nd, Spencer Jones hit a ball into deep center field that hit one of the catwalks at the top of Tropicana Field, fell back down and was caught by Victor Mesa Jr., which may have given some baseball fans a quick flashback of Ty France’s 9th inning at-bat during Game 1 of the NLDS the other night.

In the 4th, the Yankees scored their first run of the series when Rice launched a solo home run into the right field seats to tie the game at 1-1.

In the 5th, the Yankees were able to have a big scoring chance with two outs after Wells doubled and McMahon walked. Peralta was knocked out of the game and Cam Booser came in to face Rice, who walked to load the bases for Cody Bellinger. With two strikes, Bellinger drove the ball to the deepest part of center field for an out to end the inning still tied.

But in the bottom of the inning, the Rays had runners on second and third with no outs. Hicks grounded out to Chisholm to score Aranda and make the score 2-1. Simpson then grounded into a George Lombard Jr. error (or not) to score Caminero to give the Rays a 3-1 lead. Once again, an error allowed the inning to continue, again from Lombard. Ritchie Palacios then ripped a two-run single into center field to give the Rays a commanding 5-1 lead.

In the 8th, Rice hit his second home run of the night to cut the Rays’ lead down to 5-2. But Ian Seymour finished the inning to give the Rays three solid innings of work.

In the 9th, Baker came on to attempt to notch his second save in a row against the Yankees and mowed the Yankees down 1-2-3 to secure a Rays’ victory.

Player of the Game: I’ve have to give this to Aranda. He started the Rays’ big inning and continues to haunt the Yankees this series.

Notable Performances: Caminero had a big game and Palacios delivered the big blow to the Yankees in the 5th. Seymour also did a fine job out of the bullpen for the Rays. For the Yankees, Rice was their only scoring offense last night with his pair of home runs.

Better to Forget: Any Yankee infielder would love to forget the absolute disaster of a performance last night in the field. They all looked completely lost at some points with trying to make relatively simple plays.

My Take: They say bad things come in threes, and the Yankees yet again, let one bad inning get to them. That first inning was even worse than the breakdown in Game 5 against the Los Angeles Dodgers a couple years back. Both breakdowns started with a simple play that should have been made and continued to escalate from there. Whereas the breakdown against the Dodgers was mental, last night’s breakdowns were physical.

What makes things even worse is that they were very close to four errors in the 1st, but were saved by a nice play from Lombard., combined with the catcher running to second. The Dodgers called the Yankees out on this after winning the World Series, which irritated Brian Cashman. But what has changed since then? Absolutely nothing, and that falls on the coaching staff.

After they fell behind in the 5th, the Yankees looked completely lifeless. The bats went silent yet again and the swings were just not good. The Yankees finally ran into a much more complete team than the Red Sox and themselves, and it is showing. They look like a little league team that is still learning basic fundamentals of the game. Expect for the Yankees, these issues will continue to persist as long as those in charge remain.

There was nothing really great to take away from this game as a Yankee fan. At least Rice had several nice at-bats for the Yankees. It’s going to take a miracle for the Yankees to win this series at this point, but they are going to have to change every single approach. The first approach needs to be a different lineup. Maybe the fortune can turn from there, but it will take a lot. This loss is going to sting for a long time, and will be one that will be the talk on social media for the foreseeable future.

What’s Next?: The Yankees will try and keep their season alive tomorrow night, as they will return home to Yankee Stadium for Game 3. Nick Martinez will likely make the start for the Rays, while Max Fried will start for the Yankees. First pitch is scheduled for a little after 8:00 pm and will be broadcast on TBS.