Yankees Make Four Errors in ALDS Game 2, Three in a First Inning Not Seen Since 1909

The score was 5-2, but the story of ALDS Game 2 was a number the Yankees had never posted in October: four errors, three of them in the first inning, in Monday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. New York now trails the best-of-five series 2-0, and three of the five runs it allowed were unearned, USA Today and the New York Post report.

What went wrong in the first inning?

Almost everything that could. The game opened with Ryan McMahon, one of the better defensive third basemen in the game, failing to handle Yandy Diaz’s grounder, USA Today reports. Jonathan Aranda singled, Junior Caminero grounded to shortstop George Lombard Jr., whose flip to second took the force out, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. then threw the double play attempt wide of first base, Diaz scoring on the play.

The inning still had a third error in it. With Liam Hicks batting, catcher Austin Wells was called for catcher’s interference after a Rays challenge, his glove clipping the bat and wiping out a strikeout, USA Today reports. Four batters, three errors, one run, and a template for the night.

Why is the inning a record and not just a bad start?

Because of how far back the comparison runs. It was the first time in Yankees postseason history that the team committed three errors in one inning, and the first time any team had committed three errors in the first inning of a postseason game since the 1909 Detroit Tigers, Sports Illustrated reports.

The near-miss made it stranger still. A fifth-inning Lombard misplay was initially a fifth error before the official scorer changed it to a fielder’s choice, and the Post notes that a five-error game would have been the first by any team in a playoff game since 1976. Lombard was eventually charged with the fourth error, on a throw in that same fifth inning, USA Today reports. Official scorers rarely decide storylines; on Monday the box score was the storyline.

What did Chisholm and Boone say afterwards?

Chisholm defended the decision and faulted only the execution. He said he would probably still make the throw, that the play he was trying to make was the right one, and that he could have made a better throw, USA Today and the New York Post report.

Manager Aaron Boone backed the attempt and indicted the basics, saying the team has to play catch at this level, USA Today reports. The awkward detail is Boone’s own: he had kept McMahon at third in Game 2 partly to prioritise defence, the Post reports, two pitches before McMahon opened the error count. It continues a pattern this site covered from the other dugout in Game 1, when the Rays beat the Yankees 1-0 behind pitching rather than gifts.

Why are the Rays the worst opponent for a defence like this?

Because their whole offence is built to test it. Tampa Bay had the lowest strikeout rate in the majors this season at 18.8 percent and the lowest swing-and-miss rate at 20.7 percent, the third-lowest of any team in a decade, the New York Post reports. A team that puts almost everything in play does not need to outhit Cam Schlittler; it needs the fielders behind the at-bats to fail, four times.

Schlittler struck out only two, his fewest in any of his 35 starts this year, the Post reports, and left after 13 outs. He took the blame publicly while adding that it did not seem like the team really showed up, USA Today reports. New York’s bats offered no cover: five hits in two games, both runs in the series on Ben Rice solo home runs, and Aaron Judge absent with a strained calf, USA Today reports. The series opened with Judge a doubt after the Wild Card sweep; it has reached the Bronx with the doubt settled and the margin gone.

What happens in Game 3?

Survival, or winter. Max Fried starts for New York on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium, and a Rays win ends the Yankees’ season, USA Today reports. Teams up 2-0 at home in a best-of-five have advanced 33 of 36 times under the current format, although the 2017 Yankees are one of the exceptions after coming back against Cleveland.

For Fried, the ask is specific: the same defence that produced a 117-year first has to hold for nine innings behind him. Boone called it gut-check time. The first inning in St. Petersburg suggested the check started a game earlier than he planned.