How important is the second game in a five-game series? Sarah Langs from MLB.com reminds us that winning the first two games of a five-game series is a significant leg up:
New York apparently did not get the memo the way they booted
and threw the ball around for several innings in this contest. The bottom of the first inning saw three errors made on the infield with Ryan McMahon booting a routine hopper from Yandy Diaz to lead off the game followed shortly by a throwning error by Jazz Chisholm Jr and one more still when Austin Wells interfered with a swing by Liam Hicks. Despite the extra outs and the traffic on the bases, the sole run came on the errant throw allowing Diaz to score:
The second and third inning for the Rays was more traffic on the bases, but Cam Schlittler once again buckled down and stranded everyone. Through those first three innings, the Rays were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position in this game and 0 for 13 in the series. Ben Rice made the Rays regret the lack of production with a homer to lead off 4th inning on a poorly located changeup:
That home was quickly followed up by a line drive single by Cody Bellinger just past a diving Taylor Walls, but Peralta buckled down to strand him getting Spencer Jones (more on him shortly) and inducing an infield flyout to George Lombard Jr. The Rays went down somewhat quietly in the 4th with both Palacios and Walls striking out before Yandy Diaz scalded a baseball to the right center gap that Trent Grisham gracefully ran down. That batted ball was 103 off the bat with a .540 expected batting average, but more importantly, it was the loud contact that had mostly been absent in this contest the first two times through the batting order.
The fifth inning was the key moment of this contest, for both teams. In the top of the fifth, the Yankees mounted a two-out rally when Austin Wells hit nearly the same type of ball he did in Game 1, but did not have the same delusions of grandeur. That double was followed by walks to Ryan McMahon and Ben Rice before Cody Bellinger came very close to a grand slam. His 405-foot flyball would have been a home run in 12 parks, but Tropicana Field was just big enough to hold it in:
The Yankees would need about five minutes to regret how the top of that inning played out. The inning would begin with Aranda singling on a ball hit 109.1 MPH with a .650 expected batting average, but also looked very catchable in the moment by Spencer Jones. As it turns out, the data agreed as Jones had a terrible jump on the ball and let it play him rather than making the aggressive play like we saw Chandler Simpson do in his moment of game 1:
That hard hit was followed by a harder 112.4 MPH double to the right-center gap by Junior Caminero giving the Rays three consecutive 100+ batted ball events off Schlittler, but it would be the softest hit of the night that would drive in the first run of the inning. Liam Hicks would get absolutely tied up by a cutter, but the 55.1 MPH ground ball to second was perfect for the contact play with Aranda running because Chisholm Jr was the only infielder not up on the infield seam:
That event was followed by a fielder’s choice contact play by Simpson driving in Caminero. That would chase a frustrated Schlittler for the evening birnging in Brent Hendrick to strike out Victor Mesa Jr before the fourth error of the game by the Yankees extended the inning allowing the Rays to plate two more runners after both Simpson and DeLuca stole second base around the Mesa Jr strikeout on a Richie Palacios single that came after him swinging at ball 4 in a 3-0 count:
That would be the last hit with a runner in scoring position on the evening as the only other run in the contest would come on Ben Rice’s second solo home run of the evening.
Kevin Cash employed four pitchers on the evening: Freddy Peralta, Cam Booser, Ian Seymour, and Bryan Baker and it could be said Seymour was the best one of the evening. Peralta fought through 4.2 innings of work despite not having his best changeup. Peralta had 12 whiffs on the evening, but just three of those came off his changeup. Cash made the decision to pull Peralta at 66 pitches rather than allow him to face Rice a third time. Booser ended up walking Rice before getting the close-call from Bellinger before giving way to Seymour. The starter turne reliever worked three innings striking out 4, walking none, and the second Rice solo shot was the only blemish and baserunner of the appearance. Baker then came in for the 9th to secure the save with a 1-2-3 appearance.
Cam Schlitter came into this game talking about how games at Tropicana Field feeling like a home game because theRays don’t have a strong home atmosphere. For one inning, Schlitter’s statements were validated as that top of the 5th was quite loud on the broadcast but the air fell out of the visiting fans just as Bellinger’s flyball fell short of the wall. Aaron Boone needed to use five relievers behind Schlitter, whose defense did him no favors asking the young pitcher to throw more stressful pitches earlier than he or the pundits expected before the contest. Yankee fans have the thousand yard stare wondering how their road field advantage slipped through their fingers heading back to The Bronx with as many runs as they have losses to show for their efforts in Tropicana Field in this series.
