ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays played a very Rays game, the Yankees played a somewhat un-Yankees game and the two teams boarded flights for New York on Monday night in very different frames of mind.
Following a 5-2 Tampa Bay win in Game 2 of the ALDS, the Rays are one win from advancing to the ALCS and the Yankees are one loss from the end of their season. Here are five takeaways from the Trop.
The Rays are doing exactly what they want to on offense
Just look at Tampa Bay’s first two batters of the game and you’ll see. Two excellent Cam Schlittler fastballs, 98 mph and below the bottom of the strike zone, and two baserunners. The Rays put the ball in play. They do it better than anybody in baseball, and it’s just miserable to play against.
And when you help them, you’re going to allow runs. The Yankees were charged with four errors on Monday, and at least two other plays probably should have been made, as that relentless pressure paid off. To get outs, you have to do at least one of two things: miss bats, or turn batted balls into outs. Thus far, the Yankees haven’t done enough of either.
“I feel like [it’s the] same approach for every pitcher,” said Rays speedster Chandler Simpson, who beat out an infield grounder that scored the third Tampa Bay run. “We know who we are. We know who we've been all season. Just try to play our game that best caters to that.”
The Yankees, mostly, are not
Let’s put Ben Rice to the side, as the Rays wish they could do after his second two-homer game of the postseason. New York hasn’t scored a single run with anyone other than Rice at the plate, and it’s hard to ignore just how much they could use a fit, in-form Aaron Judge. However, Judge is still unavailable as he recuperates from a calf injury, and his absence is felt with every zero Tampa Bay puts up.
At its best, the Yankees offense is the opposite of what the Rays do, a callback to the vintage take-and-rake monsters of the 1990s and 2000s. They’ve hit two homers and drawn four walks in two games, and neither of those is emblematic of what they’re trying to accomplish at the plate.
“This is not a team that gives you a lot of free passes,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “They're as good as anyone in the sport at limiting walks. So you've got to do it in different ways. Whatever presents itself. Some nights, it's going to be, yeah, a walk gets things going. Some nights it's putting the ball into play. Sometimes it's putting the ball in the seats.
“So whatever it takes, we've got to do it offensively and we've got to be able to score some runs and do a better job of preventing than we did tonight.”
Defense matters
And it’s not just errors. But it’s partially errors. The Rays have looked like the athletic, dynamic team that they are on defense this series. They led the American League with a .723 defensive efficiency rating, which is simply the percentage of batted balls that a team turns into outs.
The Yankees were third in that metric, though, so it’s not as though they can’t defend. They just didn’t on Monday, and this Rays’ lineup is built to exploit any defensive failures. The Yankees must tighten up on defense, and the Rays would be well advised to keep the standard up.
There’s no place like the Trop
Catwalks, artificial turf, this place is one of a kind. It showed itself in multiple ways on Monday, most notably with a popup that hung for 10 seconds after it hit off of Ring B. The speedy infield also benefits the Rays’ slap-happy offense, while the short fences in the Bronx should benefit the home team there. It’s no guarantee that things will change with a flight north, but it’s fair to say that each of these teams is built for its home ballpark.
It’s going to be tough to score in the late innings
In theory, the Tampa Bay bullpen is the weak spot of its pitching staff. Nobody thinks that about the Yankees’ bullpen, which was perhaps the best in baseball. But with off-days allowing both managers to do pretty much whatever they want with their relievers, both units are looking pretty formidable. In both games, the team that scored first won the game, and it seems likely that having a lead after six innings will continue to be a formula for victory.