Honestly, simply skimming the headlines is enough to provide a heady jolt of ye olde schadenfreude:
Yankees' Disastrous Defense Pushes Season To Brink With ALDS Game 2 Loss
Yankees Doomed By Errors In Game 2 Loss To Rays
The Yankees Humiliated Themselves In Game 2. Now They're On The Brink Of Elimination
The Yankees Ace Needed Help This Time — And His Teammates Utterly Failed Him
Yankees Do Just About Everything Wrong In Calamitous First Inning
Aaron Boone's Toughest Decision Immediately Backfired In Game 2 Debacle
Yankees Better Remember How To Play Baseball After This Clown Show — Or Else
Yankees Ace Is Built For Surprising Environment Team Faces In Game 2
Momentum In A Best-Of-Five Series Can Flip Quickly — And Yankees Have Just The Thing To Do It
Sure they do. . . . P.S.: Here's some advice for any gamblers out there. Do not -- I said, DO NOT -- rely on the Post for any tips when it comes to wagering even a nickle.
Expect Bellinger, Yanks To Even ALDS On Monday vs. Rays
Yankees - 000 100 010 - 2 4 4
Rays - 100 040 00x - 5 8 0
Yankees' disastrous defense pushes season to brink with ALDS Game 2 loss to Rays
Greg Joyce, Post
Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, you now have company.
The stakes were not quite as high on Monday, but the Yankees turned in an even bigger defensive abomination to put themselves in a 2-0 hole in the ALDS.
Three errors in the bottom of the first inning . . . [and] another error in the fifth helped provide the dagger, sinking the Yankees in a 5-2 loss to the Rays in Game 2 of the ALDS . . .
The Yankees flew home licking their wounds with their season on life support . . .
In a recurring theme of too many postseasons past, the Yankees melted from the Rays' ability to put the ball in play and wreak havoc . . . resulting in four errors – one shy of their franchise record for a single postseason game. . . .
[A]fter [the Yankees] left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth [unable to break a 1-1 tie], they lost the game in the bottom of the frame.
Jonathan Aranda, who homered for the only run in Game 1, led off with a sinking liner to right field that Spencer Jones did not get a good jump on as it fell for a single. [Sung to the tune of "O'Neill plays it on a hop"]
After Junior Caminero's double put runners on second and third, Liam Hicks . . . hit a weak tapper to Chisholm, who looked at home before taking the out at first as the Rays went up 2-1. The infield was in again when the speedy Chandler Simpson hit a chopper to shortstop, where George Lombard Jr. could not get his backhand on it, allowing another run to score.
That led Aaron Boone to pull Schlittler, who looked stunned, for Brent Headrick, who got the second out on a strikeout. Then he generated a ground ball to shortstop that Lombard fielded and fired slightly off-target to first, where Luis García Jr. dropped it, putting runners on the corners. Brooklyn's Richie Palacios came up next and delivered the big swing, a two-run single to center field that put the Rays ahead 5-1. . . .
The Yankees played a bottom of the first that was just about disastrous as possible, except by some miracle, . . . it only resulted in a 1-0 deficit.
It began with Yandy Diaz's leadoff chopper to third base that Ryan McMahon – who Boone considered replacing in the lineup for a better threat of offense but said he wanted to "prioritize the defense" – whiffed on for the first error.
After Aranda's single through the right side, Caminero hit a grounder up the middle that Lombard ranged to and flipped to second base for the out. But Chisholm tried an off-balance, ill-advised throw to first for the double play, which instead bounced past the bag, allowing Diaz to score for the 1-0 lead.
The comedy of errors continued when Schlittler appeared to strike out Liam Hicks for the first out, except Hicks' bat hit Austin Wells' glove for a catcher's inference.
Simpson then hit a grounder to second base where Chisholm fielded it and threw high to second base, pulling Lombard off the bag. The rookie was able to get his foot back in time to get the force out, but Chisholm's throw wiped away any chance of a double play.
Mark W. Sanchez, Post
The final count from one nightmare of a bottom of the first inning for the Yankees: three errors, four misplays and somehow . . . just one run.
Against a team that famously puts the ball in play often on a home turf that famously can be difficult to adjust to, the Yankees looked as if they had never played on this stage of the ALDS or at this locale of Tropicana Field. . . .
[T]he Yankees did just about everything wrong to start Monday's Game 2.
On Schlittler's second pitch, Yandy Díaz chopped the ball to third baseman Ryan McMahon, who appeared to misjudge the turf bounce as the ball ticked off his glove for an error. . . .
Junior Caminero sent a bouncer up the middle. George Lombard Jr. ranged over and backhand-flipped to Jazz Chisholm Jr. to record the only potential out on the play — but Chisholm wildly spun and threw to first, far off-line of Luis García Jr., enabling Díaz to score and Caminero to reach second base.
The comedy of errors was only going to grow funnier for Rays fans.
Schlittler appeared to strike out Liam Hicks, but what looked like strike three instead became a catcher's interference . . .
I hope Mrs. Knoblauch brought a glove this time . . .
Yankees doomed by errors in Game 2 loss to Rays, trail 0-2 in best-of-five ALDS
Peter Sblendorio, Daily News
The Yankees made error after error, miscue after miscue in Game 2 of the ALDS.
And now, there's no more margin for error.
A mistake-filled 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Monday night left the Yankees in an 0-2 hole and on the brink of elimination . . .
The Yankees committed four errors — including three in the first inning — and failed to make several other defensive plays on a nightmarish night that just kept snowballing. . . .
In 17 road starts this regular season, Schlittler pitched to a 1.16 ERA — the fifth-best road ERA in MLB history. . . . But the Yankees defense did the flame-throwing ace no favors.
Third baseman Ryan McMahon booted a chopper off the bat of Yandy Díaz, the Rays' very first hitter.
Two batters later, Junior Caminero grounded into a force out, but second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. made an off-balance throw wide of first base as he attempted to turn a double play, allowing Díaz to score.
Catcher's interference by Austin Wells erased a called third strike and further extended the inning, as did another off-line throw by Chisholm . . .
That marked the first time in Yankees playoff history that they committed three errors in a single inning. . . .
It was a similarly frustrating start for the Yankees' offense . . . Rays starter Freddy Peralta . . . retired the first nine Yankee batters. . . .
[The MFY left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth.] It all unraveled for the Yankees from there.
After back-to-back hits against Schlittler to begin the fifth, the Rays took a 2-1 lead when an aggressive Jonathan Aranda scored from third base on a slow groundout . . . with the infield in.
Caminero then scored on a slow roller off the bat of Simpson that rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. failed to field. That play was deemed an error before the official scorer changed the ruling. After Brent Headrick replaced Schlittler . . . Lombard committed an actual error — this time on a wide throw . . .
The only playoff game with more Yankee errors was Game 2 of the 1976 ALCS, when they committed five.
"I'm not disappointed in our defense," Schlittler said. "I'm not disappointed in the offense."
Aaron Boone's toughest decision immediately backfired in Yankees' Game 2 debacle
Mark W. Sanchez, Post
Manager Aaron Boone kept the lineup intact from Game 1 — most notably keeping a struggling Ryan McMahon at third base — in part because he wanted "to prioritize the defense," he said a couple of hours before Monday's first pitch.
It took two pitches from Cam Schlittler for that decision to backfire.
McMahon made the first error, a drip that became a flood, in an embarrassing 5-2 loss in Game 2 to the Rays in which the Yankees defense was charged with four errors and probably should have been charged with more.
The problems started on the second pitch Rays leadoff hitter Yandy Díaz saw, chopping a grounder toward McMahon. The normally sure-handed veteran, perhaps misjudging the springs on the Tropicana Field turf or an infield dirt that played fast, missed on his backhand attempt. The ball skittered past him, McMahon raising his palms wondering what had just happened. Two more errors followed in an inning in which the Rays scored an unearned run.
McMahon did not make a second mistake in the field, but he also did not atone at the plate. . . . In four postseason games, McMahon is 1-for-7 — the lone hit an infield single — with two walks . . .
"'Hitler' is an essential part of my last name . . . and my fuckin teammates can't catch the goddamn ball. FML."
Cam Schlittler needed help this time — and the Yankees utterly failed him
Mark W. Sanchez, Post
"I feel like if I need to get [a strikeout]," [Cam Schlittler] said Saturday, "I'm going to be able to do that."
Schlittler's prediction was off the mark because Tampa Bay's bats were constantly on the mark.
The Yankees ace of aces . . . was not able to play hero . . .
In the game's biggest moments, Schlittler needed the help of his defense, which let him down repeatedly. . . .
It started immediately, with the aggressive Rays swinging early in counts and making consistent, often loud contact in the first inning. Errors by Ryan McMahon (on a chopper) and Jazz Chisholm Jr. (an ill-advised throw to first after recording an out at second) scored one run, but Schlittler did well to limit the damage.
The game changed, though, in a four-run fifth inning during which the flame-throwing righty needed to throw pitches by Rays bats and could not.
A single by Jonathan Aranda (played conservatively by Spencer Jones, who might have had a chance at a diving catch) and a smashed double from Junior Caminero put runners on second and third without an out in a game that was then tied, 1-1. Schlittler needed one of those strikeouts. Unlike the Rays, he whiffed.
Liam Hicks managed to make contact — the softest imaginable, a tapper that traveled 5 feet in the air — but the slow roller to Chisholm was good enough to score the go-ahead run. . . .
Next it was Chandler Simpson who fell behind 1-2 but kept fighting. . . . [He] chopped a swinging bunt 4 feet in the air toward George Lombard Jr. The rookie shortstop had a play at the plate and knew it, his eyes toward Austin Wells instead of the ball as he booted it on a backhand attempt to let in another run.
On a night Schlittler needed help . . . [he] received none . . .
Yankees better remember how to play baseball after this clown show — or else
Joel Sherman, Post
Cam Schlittler has to be "win day" for the Yankees in these playoffs. That felt nonnegotiable . . .
Still, his teammates had to help him a little.
Yet, they could not even muster a little . . . All you need to know is that in a four-batter span to begin the bottom of the first inning, the Yankees committed three errors . . . So they had as many errors in about five minutes as they had hits in this game until . . . one out in the eighth inning.
Basically the Rays forced the Yankees to play baseball — and the Yankees were just awful at it.
And because of that their season is on life support. They need a three-game winning streak against a rival who has outplayed them all season and now in the postseason. Or else it will assure a 17th straight title-less season. Or else yet another Aaron Boone team will have been ousted in the playoffs by a team that had a better record in the regular season. The competition rises and the Yankee hitting and defense sink; it has become a rite of fall.
They lost embarrassingly, 5-2, Monday night to the Rays. They have two runs in 18 innings in this division series, compared to one unpardonable baserunning gaffe by Austin Wells in the opener Saturday in which they were nearly no-hit and lost 1-0. They then committed four errors in Game 2.
Those four errors do not fully encapsulate how incompetent the Yankees were defensively. Because no team struck out fewer times this season than the Rays (18.8 percent) and what they did against Schlittler was attack strikes early in the count, put it in play and let the Yankees fielding clown show do the rest. . . .
[After five innings, Tampa led] 5-1 — and the way the Yankees are hitting against Tampa Bay, that was insurmountable. The Yankees have gone 1-2-3 in 12 of 18 innings. They have five hits and two runs in two games — and yet their baserunning and defense might be worse.
The Yankees have now lost their last six road playoff games. . . .
It feels like déjà unacceptable.
They play at home Wednesday trying to extend their season . . . Their fans will hope that somewhere between Games 2 and 3 they recall how to hit, field and run the bases smartly. You know, play baseball well.
Anyone wanna see my balance-the-baseball-on-the-side-of-my-glove trick?
The Yankees humiliated themselves in Game 2. Now they're on the brink of elimination
Gary Phillips, Daily News
As Aaron Boone awaited the start of the ALDS in the visiting manager's office at Tropicana Field on Saturday, he answered what turned out to be a prescient question.
Does it bother Boone, he was asked, that opposing teams' scouting reports say its key to put the ball in play when the Yankees are in the field. The insinuation made by such scouting reports . . . is that the Yankees don't have a sound defense. . . . [T]hat's been their rep for years under Boone, and it even became public that the Dodgers made the same evaluations after the Yankees lost the 2024 World Series to L.A. in sloppy fashion.
[The Yankees] ranked 24th in errors, 17th in Outs Above Average and 13th in Defensive Runs Saved this season . . .
"[A]t times we've been very good and people don't acknowledge it," Boone insisted. . . . "We're trying to prepare as best we can . . . If you're implying with that question we're a bad defense, no, we're not." . . .
While the manager can debate just how strong his defense was on the whole this season, there is no arguing that it was catastrophic . . . . embarrassing . . . . pathetic — take your pick — in Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday. With three errors in the first frame, four totaled on the night, and several other balls misplayed, the futile Bombers suffered a humiliating 5-2 loss to the much tidier Rays.
Now both teams are headed to Yankee Stadium with the pinstripers on the brink of elimination . . . They have no one but themselves to blame.
"Tonight was just not good enough for us . . .," Boone said . . .
The Yankees' comedy of errors in this series began on Saturday when, in a desperate attempt to jumpstart a dormant offense, Austin Wells was thrown out inexplicably trying to stretch a double into a triple. On Monday . . . Ryan McMahon committed a fielding error on the second pitch of the game.
Earlier in the day, Boone said that he had given some thought to Anthony Volpe starting in place of the light-hitting third baseman . . . "I want to prioritize the defense," Boone said, but his defense didn't prioritize taking care of the ball.
McMahon wasn't the only Yankee to falter in the first, as Jazz Chisholm Jr. helped a run score when he made an off-line throw from second base to first base on a double play attempt. With his back turned to first and Jonathan Aranda sliding at him, Chisholm's heave was off-balance and ill-advised. And yet, he didn't think he should have held onto the ball.
"Honestly, I'd probably still throw it in the play that was trying to be made," Chisholm said. . . .
Wells was then called for catcher interference upon review, and Chisholm nearly threw another ball away before the inning ended.
[D]isaster struck their defense again in the fifth inning, which began with an Aranda single to right. The ball bounced in front of Spencer Jones after he got a jump that was -13.4 feet below average, per Statcast. Boone claimed the 109.4-mph "bullet" wasn't catchable . . . Jones disagreed. He said he should have caught it, but he admitted to hesitating on a "tough read." . . .
Now the Yankees — devoid of fundamentals, riddled with mistakes, and short on offense — find themselves in an unenviable 2-0 hole as they head back to Yankee Stadium, where the Rays have already celebrated a division crown in the past month. The Yanks need to win three straight to keep their season alive . . .
Yankees head home from unlikeliest house of horrors clinging to hope for return
Mike Vaccaro, Post
This has never been what you would call a standard house of horrors. Nobody has ever thought to give it a nickname. . . .
It's just "The Trop," short for Tropicana Field, and let's be very honest: It's not even anywhere close to the best atmosphere in a building that has been named for orange juice. That would be Daikin Park, formerly Minute Maid Park, in Houston.
The Trop?
The Trop could mostly pass for study hall for most of its existence. . . .
But the Yankees are going to be grateful to get the hell out of Dodge, to get the hell out of St. Petersburg. This has been a road trip from hell, and it has shoved them right to the brink of a season that promised so much and is on the verge of delivering precious little.
The Rays beat the Yankees 5-2 on Monday night, but they only got around to that once the Yankees were done beating the Yankees on Monday night. They couldn't catch the ball, couldn't hit the ball . . .
It was like that fifth inning of the fifth game of the World Series a few years ago, only spread around the whole game. And the suddenly very audible Rays fans took great delight in silencing the Yankee invaders — the ones in the stands as well as the ones on the field — and enjoying every one of the four — four!! — errors the team in the road grays committed.
The Yankees' slapstick contrasts sharply with the Rays' tight, smart, efficient brand of ball. . . .
The Yankees used to feel at home down in Tampa-St. Pete . . . Tampa used to be an easy, breezy stop along the way, with so many Yankees fans inside the arid walls of the Trop that it felt and sounded like a smaller, uglier version of Yankee Stadium. . . .
But this year they lost five of the seven games they played in St. Pete during the regular season, and they're now 0-2 here in the postseason, and maybe the most dire of all the thoughts the Yankees face in their present predicament is this: They will now pay any price and bear any burden to get another game here. . . .
[B]ack in The Bronx . . . [i]t'll be a desperate house facing desperate times . . .
They couldn't do it last year. . . . The Bronx couldn't save them last year.
It has to save them this time.
Mark W. Sanchez, Post
Heroes, zeros and the inside pitch from the Yankees' 5-2 loss to the Rays in Game 2 of the ALDS . . .
Hero
Old-school baseball. Baseball's best team at putting the ball in play struck out just four times total in a game started by Cam Schlittler, putting constant pressure on a Yankees defense that wilted.
Zero
The entire Yankees defense. Misplays, four of which were scored as errors, from (in order) Ryan McMahon, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Austin Wells, Spencer Jones, George Lombard Jr., Lombard again and Luis García Jr. led to three unearned runs and one of the ugliest playoff performances you will see. . . .
Key Stat
4: Errors by the Yankees — and they probably should have been charged with five — including three in the first inning
Before Game 2:
Clock is ticking for Yankees to change the harsh reality of their playoff reputation
Joel Sherman, Post
The Yankees have a few days this week to demonstrate that when the playoff going gets tough, they don't just get going toward their offseason golf game.
Until proven otherwise, they are the Boone Bullies. They are capable of outdoing inferiors and the AL Central in the postseason, but wilt when their equal or better shows up. . . .
[A]s Game 1 of the division series again reiterated, at this time of year, when the level of competition goes up, the Aaron Boone Yankees have yet to rise concurrently.
Saturday night, they were nearly no-hit by Drew Rasmussen, totaled just one hit and lost 1-0 to the team that outdid them all season — the AL East champion Rays.
This is not a funeral. The Yankees have their most postseason bulletproof player of the Boone Era, Cam Schlittler, starting Monday night's Game 2. . . .
Still, the math is not favorable for the Yankees. They have to win three of four now to advance, with the knowledge that the Yankee killer Rasmussen (1.60 ERA in 12 games/11 starts against the Yankees) will get one more start if necessary. Plus, the Rays were just better than the Yankees over 162 games. . . .
To this point, a Boone Yankee team has completed 15 playoff series since he became manager in 2018. They are 7-0 against foes they had a better overall record than during the year. They are 1-7 against those with the same or worse records. The one series win was against Cleveland during the 60-game 2020 COVID season.
And really the meek AL Central should hardly count. They are like the mildly good wrestler who gets beaten to elevate a challenger for a championship shot. The Boone Yankees are 5-0 against the AL Central in the postseason. . . .
[In Game 1] the Yankees did not give their fans many reasons to cheer. Even their lone hit, an Austin Wells eighth-inning double, devolved into the kind of boneheaded play that has defined the Boone Yankees' extinction this time of year when Wells unforgivably tried and failed to stretch it into a triple.
The Rays and Yankees have had the two best records in the AL every day since April 23 except for one. Tampa Bay went into first place for good June 27. The Yankees have been trying to play catch-up since. Even reset at 0-0 on Oct. 3, the Rays have gone up on the Yankees again. . . .
[U]ntil proven otherwise, this is the time of year in which the Boone Yankees see their superiors and begin offseason plans.
