The Yankees Are on the Verge of Elimination

The Yankees lost last night. And they have no one to blame but themselves.

In a 5-2 loss to the Rays last night, the Yankees put themselves in a position where they're down 2-0 in their best-of-three series.

They've put themselves in a position where they have to win their next three games to stay in the series.

Why? Because, on the Rays' home field, they looked like the team Buck Martinez called “bad” in 2025 on Sportsnet.

Basically, the team was charged with four errors—three of them in the first inning alone—during Game 2.

Originally, it was five… but we imagine the scorekeeper took pity on the Yankees and took the error off the board for that play.

George Lombard Jr. misses the play and Chandler Simpson drives in another run for the Rays pic.twitter.com/4reUqj0dZB

— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) October 6, 2026

Cam Schlittler did what he could, but he ran into trouble against the Rays' small-ball offense. And above all, he was let down by his own defense.

His teammates let him down, even though he allowed only two earned runs (and two unearned) in 4.1 innings of work.

Aaron Boone on Cam Schlittler in ALDS Game 2:

“He carried us all night. It's hard to do that time after time. Cam did his job. We didn't give him a good enough chance to really do his job” pic.twitter.com/SFfzzn6Egh

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) October 6, 2026

The Rays' hitters put the ball in play. Freddy Peralta and the bullpen—including Ian Seymour—did their job, holding nearly all of the Yankees' hitters in check.

Only Ben Rice (two solo home runs, stepping in admirably for Aaron Judge) managed to make an impact.

The Rays and the White Sox are therefore in a good position to try to eliminate the Yankees and the Guardians as early as tomorrow.

In the National League, it's 1-1 between the Braves and the Dodgers… and the Brewers will try to eliminate the Padres as early as tonight.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.