Yankees’ Four-Error Night Puts a 17-Year Drought on the Brink

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 5-2 on Monday night at Tropicana Field and took a 2-0 lead in the American League Division Series.

New York made four errors, three of them in the first inning, and has scored two runs in two games with Aaron Judge out. Game 3 is Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees Handed Tampa Bay a 2-0 Series Lead

Richie Palacios, a Brooklyn native who grew up rooting for these Yankees, ripped a two-run single in a four-run fifth, and Tampa Bay’s bullpen closed a night Cam Schlittler could not survive behind that infield. A sellout crowd of 40,226, heavy on cowbells, drowned out the visitors until Ben Rice finally got New York on the board.

Rice hit two home runs, the first a fourth-inning drive off Freddy Peralta that tied the game 1-1 and ended a scoreless ALDS for the Yankees. They had one hit and no runs in Game 1 against Drew Rasmussen. The second Rice ball was a solo shot off Ian Seymour. That was the entire New York offense for the series through two nights.

Schlittler, 14-6 with a 1.95 ERA in the regular season and the likely AL Cy Young winner, lasted 4 1/3 innings. He allowed four runs, two earned, on six hits, walked one, and struck out two. He threw 41 pitches in the first two innings and 53 through three, then watched the fifth open with a single and a double and close with his night over.

Three of Tampa Bay’s five runs were unearned. Take those away and Monday is a 2-2 game. The Rays did not need a crooked number off clean plays. They rolled balls at an infield that would not finish them, then handed the lead to a bullpen that has now recorded two saves in two games.

Three Errors Landed Before Schlittler Could Breathe

Manager Aaron Boone had said earlier in the series that the Yankees had to take care of the ball against Tampa Bay, because the outs were there if they were clean. Monday they were not. The first inning alone matched a postseason mark that had sat untouched since the 1975 Oakland Athletics.

THE FIRST INNING IN ORDER

• McMahon: Yandy Díaz’s chopper clanks off third baseman Ryan McMahon’s glove, the first error of the night.
• Chisholm: Jazz Chisholm Jr. barehands a flip from George Lombard Jr. on Junior Caminero’s grounder and throws wide of first, the ball hitting the Rays’ dugout rail, Díaz scoring from second.
• Wells: Liam Hicks’s check swing clips Austin Wells’s glove for catcher’s interference, error number three and a free base.
• The extra misplay: Chandler Simpson rolls a ball to Chisholm, whose throw to second pulls Lombard off the bag before the rookie tags it for the second out.

Schlittler limited the damage to that one unearned run on 19 pitches, 17 of them strikes, when Victor Mesa Jr. grounded out. McMahon called the inning unacceptable and noted that Schlittler had kept it to one run. The inning still cost 41 pitches over the first two frames and put the likely Cy Young winner in a hole his offense could not dig out of.

The three first-inning errors tied the postseason record for that inning. The last club to do it was the Athletics, who lost the 1975 ALCS opener 7-1 in Boston with four errors in the game, then were swept. New York’s four errors on Monday tied the second most in Yankees postseason history, behind five in Game 2 of the 1976 AL Championship Series at Kansas City.

It also rhymed with the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, when the gloves came apart against the Dodgers. Boone’s infield is not new to October leaks. It picked a poor night to spring another one, in a building where the Yankees have now lost seven of nine this year, counting the playoffs.

What an 0-2 Deficit Has Meant Since 2017

The Rays need one more win to reach the American League Championship Series. History is not kind to the club that has to win three straight.

THE 0-2 MATH

Clubs that take a 2-0 lead have won 83 of 93 series. Under the current Division Series format, teams that win the first two at home have gone on 33 of 36 times. The last team to climb an 0-2 hole in a best-of-five was these Yankees, in the 2017 ALDS against Cleveland.

New York has lived on both sides of that number. The 2001 club came back from 0-2 against Oakland, the Jeter flip series. The 1995 club went home after Seattle erased the same deficit. No American League team that rallied from 0-2 in the ALDS has gone on to win the World Series. The 2017 Yankees won the pennant path as far as the ALCS and stopped.

If they are eliminated, the championship drought reaches 17 seasons. They last won in 2009, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games for title No. 27. They reached the World Series in 2024 and lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Monday did not end the year. It put the year on a three-game clock.

Aaron Judge Will Not Be in Uniform on Wednesday

The captain wants in. He is not on the 26-man roster for this round. A moderate strain of the soleus in his right calf, suffered Sept. 16 at Minnesota in his seventh game back from a fractured rib, has kept him out of every postseason game. He missed 84 games with the rib. He slashed.241/.360/.511 with 18 home runs and an.871 OPS in 66 regular-season games.

Boone left off the ALDS roster a three-time AL MVP who was willing to pinch-hit. The manager wanted a fuller version later, not a limited one now. Judge is eligible for an AL Championship Series roster if New York gets there. He is not eligible to walk into Game 3 as a player.

I just feel like he’s not quite ready to do it. He wanted to be on. He was willing to do anything. I just felt like for us to win a World Series, and I understand, there’s no guarantees. We could be home in a week.

Aaron Boone, Yankees manager, Oct. 3 at Tropicana Field

Giancarlo Stanton is on the roster after calf injuries that sat him from late April, and he did not bat in the Wild Card sweep of Boston. Ben Rice, who hit 41 home runs in the regular season, is the bat that has shown up. Two solo shots do not cover four errors and a lineup that has now scored two runs in two ALDS games.

A Brooklyn Yankees Fan Drove in the Last Two

The fifth inning was the game. Jonathan Aranda singled in front of right fielder Spencer Jones to start it. Caminero, who led the majors with 26 double plays grounded into this season, doubled to the wall in right-center. Chisholm was several feet farther back on the dirt than the rest of a drawn-in infield, so Hicks’s bouncer to second scored Aranda for a 2-1 lead, with the only play at first.

Simpson then chopped a ball that Lombard did not handle cleanly, scoring Caminero to make it 3-1. The play was first scored a hit, then an error, then a fielder’s choice. Brent Headrick replaced Schlittler and struck out Mesa. Simpson stole second. Jonny DeLuca reached when Lombard’s throw to first sailed wide, the fourth error, even as Luis García Jr. could not hold the ball. Palacios then lined a two-run single to center on a 3-2 pitch and it was 5-1.

Lombard said the night compiled and stacked, and that the Yankees had put themselves in a bad spot. Palacios, the New York native, had laid off pitches and gotten to 3-0 before doing the damage. Kevin Cash pointed at a clubhouse that does not care who gets it done, as long as all nine, the bench, and the staff get it done.

WHO WORKED THE 5-2

Booser’s escape was the Yankees’ last clean look at the lead. Bellinger’s fly was the loudest out of the night, and the Rays answered it immediately. Baker has now finished both games. Tampa Bay is one win from the ALCS without needing a star turn from any one hitter, which is the point Cash keeps making about this roster.

Max Fried Starts With No Room Left

The projected starters for Wednesday’s 8 p.m. ET game at Yankee Stadium are left-hander Max Fried (5-5, 2.80 ERA) for New York and right-hander Nick Martinez (15-6, 3.10) for Tampa Bay. Fried has to pitch the Yankees into Thursday. Martinez has to keep a 2-0 lead that almost never gets away.

HOW THEY GOT HERE

1. September 16, 2026: Judge strains the soleus in his right calf at Minnesota, seven games after returning from a fractured rib.
2. October 3, 2026: Judge is held off the ALDS roster. The Yankees manage one hit and no runs in Game 1 against Rasmussen.
3. October 5, 2026: Four errors, two Rice homers, a 5-2 loss, and a 2-0 series hole.
4. October 7, 2026: Game 3 in the Bronx, Fried against Martinez, Judge still in street clothes.

Boone said his club has answered hard weeks all year and has to do it again. The 2017 team did, from 0-2 in Cleveland. This team has scored two runs in two games, made four errors in one of them, and is playing without the captain who wants to be out there. One more loss would make it 17 seasons since 2009. Fried gets the ball first.