Yankees swept by Rays in another October playoff failure for Aaron Boone and Co.
Eight years ago, longtime Yankee Brett Gardner unknowingly delivered what would become an epitaph for the Aaron Boone Era Yankees.
“This is the time of year,” Gardner said after a four-game loss to the Red Sox in their 2018 American League Division Series, “when good teams get sent home and great teams move on.”
That was Boone’s first season as Yankees manager.
Eight years later, it has been the same each time the Yankees have made the playoffs under Boone — good during the regular season and, at times, better than that in October.
But never good enough.
And never great.
So it was again on a crisp Wednesday night at the Stadium as the Yankees were swept out of the Division Series with a 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in front of a loud but ultimately disappointed and angry sellout crowd of 48,865.
“Look, the ending is terrible. You know, there’s one team at this time of year that is going to go home happy,” said Boone, whose teams have reached the postseason eight times in his nine years as manager and come up short of a title each time.
“First of all, congratulations to the Rays. They beat us. They’ve obviously had a great season and get to continue on. But for us, there’s just no easy way. It’s a broken clubhouse.
“It’s what you go through as a team, as a family over the last eight, nine months getting ready for this, and there’s just — it’s the worst. It’s the worst.”
The game in many respects was a classic. The contest featured some sterling defensive plays by a Yankees defense that had been rightfully savaged for a four-error performance in Game 2. The Yankees produced several of the kind of big hits missing in the first two games of the series, a near ninth-inning rally and an umpiring/replay controversy that brought Jeffrey Maier’s name back into the public sphere 30 years after it first gained prominence.
That occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning after Victor Mesa Jr. had given the Rays a 4-2 lead with a two-out, two-run homer in the top half against Yankees starter Max Fried. It was the first home run Fried had allowed on a sweeper this season, according to YES.
After George Lombard Jr. worked a one-out walk against righty Griffin Jax and Austin Wells struck out, Anthony Volpe pulled in his hands, swung at a 1-and-0 sinker in off the plate and launched a drive to left into a stiff wind. Although Mesa didn't take the best of routes to the ball, he thought he had a bead on it, but the ball carried and carried. As Mesa jumped at the base of the wall, it disappeared into the first row of seats for an apparent tying two-run homer, as called by leftfield umpire Shane Livensparger.
But with the crowd still in hysterics, a replay review showed a fan in the first row clearly reaching into the field of play and touching the ball well above Mesa's upraised glove. It wouldn't have been a home run, but Mesa wouldn't have caught it, either. Volpe was awarded a double and Lombard, running on contact, was awarded home to make it 4-3.
“I thought they got it right,” Boone said.
Volpe said that while watching the replay, he was “hoping for the best.”
It did not work out that way, nor did the series for the Yankees.
Volpe — who was stranded when Spencer Jones struck out — had the Yankees' only hit in their final 18 at-bats on Wednesday after Jones' two-out RBI double off lefthander Ian Seymour in the fourth tied it at 2-2.
The Yankees wound up with a .130/.192/.239 slash line for a .431 OPS in the series, their lowest batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS in any multi-game postseason series in franchise history, according to statistician Katie Sharp. They scored five runs and went 12-for-92 with 31 strikeouts in the series.
The Rays batted only .208 and scored only 10 runs, but six of them were scored with two outs.
“They beat us,” said Cody Bellinger, who went 0-for-4 in Game 3 and 1-for-12 in the series. “Obviously, for myself, I needed to be better . . . didn’t really get that big hit with runners in scoring position.”
The Yankees, who stranded a runner in the eighth when pinch hitter Giancarlo Stanton, with the crowd roaring, struck out, did make it interesting in the ninth against Bryan Baker.
Jones walked with one out and Jazz Chisholm Jr., booed after he popped out while pinch hitting for Jose Caballero in the seventh, grounded into a 4-6 forceout. After Chisholm stole second, Trent Grisham struck out on a changeup from Baker that faded out of the strike zone to end the Yankees' season.
Boos rained down one final time as the Yankees, who fell to the Blue Jays in four games in last year’s ALDS, watched another team celebrate on their home field.
Some fans in right started a “Fire Boone” chant as the Rays exchanged high-fives and hugs on the field.
A few players said the loss will provide motivation in the offseason, which will be an uncertain one because it is all but considered a fait accompli that the owners will lock out the players when the collective bargaining agreement expires at midnight Dec. 1.
“It’s been four too many seasons having this taste in my mouth,” said Volpe, who debuted in 2023, the one season out of Boone’s nine in which the Yankees didn’t make the playoffs. “At this point, I don’t even think motivating in the right word. It’s just [ticked] off. That’s my feeling.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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