Yankees' loss to Rays so befuddling they're huddling
Yankees' Aaron Judge reacts after he struck out against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday, May 11, 2023. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The postgame scene Thursday night was an unusual one. Typically the Yankees’ clubhouse is empty when the doors first swing open for the media, with players often trickling in minutes later.
But not this time.
Not after the Yankees were thumped, 8-2, by the Rays and it didn’t feel that close. This was only Game No. 39 on the season, but something evidently felt more significant, because one group of players in particular wasn’t quite ready to move on in the wake of Rays starter Drew Rasmussen mowing them down yet again.
Aaron Judge had pulled up a chair alongside the lockers of DJ LeMahieu and Harrison Bader, with the trio deep in discussion. Bader still was in full uniform. The conversation appeared serious. And when it broke up, Judge volunteered himself to speak with reporters, the captain offering up that the Yankees did not have a solid plan of attack against the division-leading Rays.
“I think some guys had some good plans,” said Judge, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. “But it’s just about sticking with it as the at-bat goes on. You’ll foul off a pitch, you’ll miss a pitch, and then you’ll kind of get upset and maybe switch off it and try something different. For us, it’s just about, you got to have conviction. You’ve got to stick with your approach, stick with your plan throughout the whole at-bat.
“When you got nine guys in the lineup doing that, it makes for a tough outing. But when we’re constantly switching our approach, at-bat to at-bat, guy to guy, it’s gonna make it tough.”
The Yankees again looked hopeless against Rasmussen, mustering only two hits through seven innings — both singles by Jake Bauers, who was the only one to reach base. Rasmussen has yet to allow a run in four career appearances (three starts) vs. the Yankees, a streak of 21 scoreless innings (26 Ks).
Everyone already knew the Rays are the best team in the sport. They hit and pitch better than any other club, across the board. Turns out, the A’s are worse than we thought, because whatever momentum the Yankees gained in the sweep of Oakland dissolved like a mirage once the Rays rolled into the Bronx.
Entering Thursday’s series opener, the Yankees had scored at least seven runs in four straight games for the first time since 2019. They also smacked 17 homers in the past nine games after hitting eight in the previous 13. In their minds, Aaron Boone & Co.. were ready for a rematch with the Rays.
It was easy to believe that coming off a weekend at the Trop where the Yankees dropped two of three to Tampa Bay but were only outscored, 15-14, and blew a 6-0 lead with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound. That had to mean the gap between the last-place Yankees and the top team in the AL East wasn’t too wide, right?
You had to wonder if that was truly the case in the wake of Thursday night’s blowout. It was close for a while, and the Rays needed Anthony Rizzo kicking Josh Lowe’s routine grounder to set up Yandy Diaz’s two-out RBI double for a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning. The Yankees gifted them the unearned run, and the normally trustworthy Ron Marinaccio poured lighter fluid all over this game in the sixth.
The trouble started when Boone decided to lift German, who was at 87 pitches, after his one-out walk to Taylor Walls. In came Marinaccio, who served up a single, plunked Manuel Margot and then got smoked by a Josh Lowe bases-clearing double to give the Rays a 4-0 lead. It seems like bad things happen when Boone pulls German before 90 pitches. Maybe he’ll push him a little farther next time. Anyway, given Rasmussen’s domination, that deficit felt insurmountable.
“We certainly haven’t solved him yet,” Boone said. “In a handful of outings now against us, he’s kind of had his way.”
The Yankees only managed to get on the scoreboard in the ninth inning when the Rays trotted out Javy Guerra and his 6.00 ERA. Willie Calhoun’s leadoff double and a pair of walks were followed by Gleyber Torres’ two-run single, but Guerra finally regrouped to whiff Bauers for the final out.
This was not how the Yankees envisioned this night playing out. Not after battling the Rays in three one-run games last weekend, then using the A’s for batting practice right after. They also had Judge back in the lineup for the rematch, and the outcome couldn’t have been much worse if he was still a spectator. Making sure they don’t get a repeat of Thursday’s meek effort is probably what prompted the clubhouse huddle later that night.
Or if the Yankees need any ideas, they can always watch video of the relentless Rays, who are proving to be nearly impossible to even slow down, never mind stop.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
