ST. PETERSBURG – The Yankees have spent months touting their starting rotation as an October advantage. One loss hasn’t changed that – if anything, it sets up the first real test of a formula they still believe can carry them deep into this postseason.
Saturday’s opener of the American League Division Series offered a preview of the challenge ahead. The Rays’ Drew Rasmussen was masterful, holding the Yankees hitless into the eighth inning of their 1-0 loss in Game 1 at Tropicana Field.
“Look, we know they’re a tough opponent,” Gerrit Cole said. “They’re going to land some blows. You’ve got to take blows in the postseason, and you’ve got to dish them out, too.”
In all best-of-five postseason series, teams taking a 1-0 lead have gone on to win the series 116 of 160 times (73%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams taking a 1-0 lead at home have gone on to win 42 of 56 times (75%).
“It’s the playoffs. Here we go,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Every day is important. Every win is an exhale and exciting, and the losses are gut punches.”
Austin Wells notched the Yankees’ only hit, a two-out eighth-inning double off Rasmussen, but he was thrown out at third base trying to stretch it into a triple. The one hit was the fewest in the Yankees’ 447 postseason games.
“I was being aggressive,” Wells said. “We didn’t really have much going on there in the game, so every 90 feet matters. Obviously, I have full trust in the guys behind me. But I was trying to make something happen.”
Beyond those statistics, there is another factor to consider. If they are to advance, the Yankees must – in all likelihood – face Rasmussen once more in this series, and they’ll have to produce a better outcome.
“Hopefully, we do get to the point that we see him again, because that means we’re stretching out the series,” Ben Rice said. “Hopefully, we’ll make the adjustments we need to.”
Cole navigated five innings of one-run ball, scattering five hits in the right-hander’s first postseason start since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series.
Jonathan Aranda cracked a third-inning home run off a changeup from Cole, who walked one and struck out five.
“He got us off to a good start tonight,” Boone said. “They made him work, and then our bullpen picked it up from there. I thought we did a really good job on the mound tonight, doing what we needed to do to give ourselves a chance.”
But Rasmussen was razor-sharp, retiring 23 of the 26 batters he faced. As Wells’ two-out double rattled near the right-field wall, Wells charged around second base, seeing third-base coach Luis Rojas’ stop sign too late.
Victor Mesa Jr. fired a perfect relay to shortstop Taylor Walls, whose throw to third baseman Junior Caminero arrived in plenty of time to nab Wells.
“Just obviously not a good decision there,” Boone said.
Long after closer Bryan Baker recorded the final out, Wells stood in front of his locker, still fully dressed in a road-gray uniform streaked with the reddish-brown remnants of his headfirst slide.
“Obviously, I wanted to be safe,” Wells said. “I was committed to being there and thought I had a good chance to get there. You can’t hang your head too much. They pitched incredible tonight.”
A raucous, towel-waving crowd of 40,542 provided a far different environment than the Yankees have come to expect from previous trips to St. Petersburg, where friendly audiences often make games look and sound like they could be taking place in the Bronx.
Cam Schlittler – who will start Game 2 on Monday – said as much in the hours before first pitch, noting, “I wouldn't say there's really too much of an away crowd here. I expect there to be a lot of Yankees fans. In some ways, you are, to an extent, kind of playing at home.”
It sure didn’t feel that way, and Rasmussen’s dominant 10-strikeout effort did nothing to change that. The righty silenced a Yankees lineup that had produced 18 runs over their two-game sweep of the Red Sox in the American League Wild Card Series.
But the Yankees have seen performances like that before from Rasmussen, who also carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Yankees on Sept. 22 in New York, the night Tampa Bay clinched the American League East.
Needing to win three of the next four games, they can’t afford another.
“It’s a tall order,” Rice said. “I think we’re built for it.”