SAN DIEGO — Aaron Boone’s blunder, arguably the biggest of his career, may wind up costing the Yankees a shot at the World Series.
To be clear, a lot more has to go wrong after the Yankees’ 7-5 loss to the Rays in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Petco Park. They’re not done yet, not with the best-of-five set tied at 1-all and a chance at redemption coming immediately.
Of course, the Yankees have the bats and a plenty competent starter going Wednesday in veteran Masahiro Tanaka against the solid Charlie Morton. It’s just that, they envisioned outsmarting the Rays when they planned to let stud rookie Deivi Garcia pitch one inning before handing the ball to J.A. Happ for a slew of lefty-on-lefty matchups.
Instead, it blew up in Boone’s face, and the Yankees spent all night trying to play catchup.
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Garcia labored through through the first inning and gave up a run. And after a day of feinting that the club was looking to Garcia to provide length, Boone pulled the old switch-a-roo, bringing in Happ.
By the time Happ was done, a 1-1 tie had turned into a 5-1 Rays lead, and nine of the 17 batters he faced had reached base.
Meanwhile, Rays starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow was better than ace Blake Snell the day prior, striking out 10 over five innings. Glasnow gave up four runs and Tampa Bay’s bullpen combined for four one-run innings. Nick Anderson’s scoreless seventh and eighth innings were crucial.
Not even Giancarlo Stanton’s two blasts could save the Yankees. Stanton has five home runs in four postseason games and it was his first multi-homer game since Sept.
Didn’t help that the Yankees struck out a whopping 18 times — the most ever in a nine-inning game.
They had give hits and their best hitter, DJ LeMahieu, had one hit in six at-bats. Aaron Judge and Luke Voit each struck out three times. The Yankees had come into the night having scored 31 runs through its first three playoff games — the most in MLB history over that span.
The Yankees had quite a beef with CB Bucknor, riding him all game for strike calls to the point where it almost boiled over in the ninth on a high strike against Gleyber Torres, who would walk on the next pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs against Pete Fairbanks. After Clint Frazier and Gary Sanchez each struck out, DJ LeMahieu singled in a run, and Judge grounded out to third base to end it.
The first batter Happ faced, Joey Wendle, singled, and then two outs later No. 9 hitter Mike Zunino crushed a two-run shot to put the Rays up, 3-1. In the third inning, a one-out walk to Ji-Man Choi preceded Manuel Margot’s two-run homer over the center field wall. When he cleared the fence, center fielder Aaron Hicks’ head dropped and his hands went to his knees. That made it 5-1 Rays.
But Stanton’s second bomb came right on time. After an Aaron Hicks single up the middle and a Voit walk, Stanton crushed one 458 feet to left-center field. It landed just over the last row of seats in the second deck and it cut the Yankees’ deficit to 5-4.
Bringing in Adam Ottavino and Jonathan Loaisiga didn’t help, either. Though Ottavino got the Yankees out of a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth, he walked Wendle, and then Kevin Kiermaier drove him in with a single up the gut on the first pitch Loaisiga threw. Loaisiga would also cough up a solo shot to Austin Meadows, who was out injured for the Wild Card, for a 7-4 Rays advantage.
In the seventh, the Yankees choked with two men on and no outs, with reliever Diego Castillo shutting them down.
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
