Yankees vs Rays: Contrasts in Approach

by Dusty Writes

October 5, 2026

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The Yankees/Rays series is fascinating in many ways. The contrasts are incredible. The most successful franchise in MLB history vs a team who is trying to win their first World Series. The older traditional team vs an expansion team.

The difference in team payrolls and baseball style of the two teams, and their baseball philosophy is also quite different. 

Although many in the media and many fans deemphasize batting average, batting average is very important. The Rays led all MLB in team batting average with a .258 batting average. The Yankees, however had the 26th best batting average with a . 235 batting average. 

The 3 top teams in batting average also are 3 of the best teams in MLB: (1) Rays (2) Brewers (3) Dodgers, according to Baseball Reference.

We know how much home runs are emphasized and batting averages deemphasized. The Yankees had the second most home runs in MLB with 223, only 3 less than Houston. The Yankees, however, played only 161 games this season, and may have tied, if not surpassed Houston for the most homers in MLB had they played 162 games.

The Rays, the best team in the American League in the regular season, hit only 169 homers, and were only 22nd best in MLB in homers. What is more incredible is that the best regular season team in MLB, the Milwaukee Brewers, hit only 154 homers, next to last in all of MLB! The Brewers, despite their lack of home run power, were the second highest scoring team in MLB, averaging 5.14 runs per game.

The media constantly say how difficult it is to string together a few hits in the same inning, and therefore teams try to hit homers. The Rays and especially the Brewers are examples of two excellent teams, who have succeeded by going against conventional wisdom.

Also, many who believe in sabermetrics say a strikeout is just another out. This season, a White Sox player just set a new record for most strikeouts in a season. The vast majority of everyday players strike out well over 100 times a season.

The Rays, however, have the fewest strikeouts by their batters of any team in MLB. The Rays batters struck out only 1,145 times this season, well below the MLB average of 1,357. By contrast, the Yankees batters struck out 1,480 times. Only 5 teams struck out more than the Yankees batters.

The Rays, despite hitting many less homers than the Yankees, averaged almost as many runs per game than the Yankees. The Yankees averaged 4.59 runs scored per game vs the Rays who averaged 4.54 runs scored per game.

These 2 different philosophies of constructing a winning team by the Yankees and Rays is fascinating. It will be interesting how this series turns out.  Which philosophy will win out in this series?

I know Yankees fans are thrilled that they defeated the Red Sox so easily. While the Yankees got excellent contributions from most of their lineup, and their pitching completely dominated Boston's lineup, there were some things the Yankees need to fix as they start to play the better teams in the postseason.

In Game One vs Boston, Lombard Jr. got doubled off second base. The next game, Rice was easily thrown out at home on a play in which he should have stayed at third base. Also, Grisham took much too much time getting to a ball which should have been a single, yet the batter reached second base. Grisham's throw was also weak.

I am not sure if the Yankees can continue to make these mistakes and defeat the Rays in this series.