Rays’ Keeps Mashing, Yankees Stall in ALDS Game 3

The New York Yankees had a chance. It was the third inning; the bases were loaded, the game was tied, and Luke Voit — baseball’s home run champ in the regular season — was at the plate. When Tampa Bay Rays starter Charlie Morton fell behind him 3-0, you could practically hear the Yankees’ bench vibrating with anticipation. Then back-to-back pitches were called strikes at the knees, and there was a new kind of tension. Both offerings could have been ruled out of the zone to force home a run, but they weren’t, and now Voit had just one more shot to do damage. Instead, he grounded out harmlessly to the shortstop.

Then the Rays got their chance. Joey Wendle singled to lead off the top of the fourth against Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka, who followed that with a walk issued to Willy Adames. Then Kevin Kiermaier turned on the first pitch he saw and launched it into the empty seats in right field for a three-run homer to put the Rays ahead. Tampa Bay added on with two more big homers in the ensuing innings while simultaneously holding the Yankees to their smallest run total of the postseason in an 8-4 victory in ALDS Game 3 on Wednesday at Petco Park in San Diego. The Rays, the AL’s top seed in the playoffs, are now up 2-1 in the series and just a game away from eliminating their division rivals.

It was the second-straight evening in which Tampa Bay, a team known for its pitching prowess, took charge by flexing its muscles at the plate. After crushing four homers on Tuesday, the Rays slugged three more in Game 3 as part of an evening in which they totaled 13 hits. Tanaka gave up eight of those, along with one walk and five runs in just four innings. Morton, meanwhile, made a start just about any pitcher in this year’s postseason would be proud of, finishing five innings and allowing just two runs (one earned) on four hits and two walks while striking out six.

Tampa Bay drew first blood in the second inning when Wendle and Adames each reached base for the first time on singles. Tanaka struck out Kiermaier before getting to No. 9 hitter Michael Perez, who lined a single to right field that barely eluded the glove of the leaping 6-foot-4 DJ LeMahieu at second base.

Tanaka came back to work a scoreless third, and after allowing the big homer to Kiermaier, he settled in again to retire the last three hitters he faced in the fourth. The Yankees ran him back out to begin the fifth inning with the hope that his pattern of alternating poor innings and clean innings would continue. It took one pitch to make them regret it.

That homer was part of a 3-for-4 game for Randy Arozarena that also included a walk and a pair of singles, raising his postseason slash line to a preposterous .600/.636/1.250 with three homers and just two strikeouts in five games. While Arozarena remained scorching hot, however, he was the only one at the top of the order who performed for Tampa Bay in Game 3, as the 1 and 2 spots combined to go 0-for-10.

Instead, it was the bottom of the order who raked. After Kiermaier led off the sixth inning with a double to set up another chance with a runner in scoring position for Perez, the Rays’ young catcher threatened a bunt on the first two pitches he saw. When that simply led to him falling behind 0-2, he opted to swing away. Kids, always swing away.

After combining to hit just four homers in the regular season, Kiermaier and Perez teamed up for the two biggest swings of the night for Tampa Bay. Luis Cessa entered and retired the first two batters he faced in the sixth, but then Arozarena walked and immediately came around to score on a double by Ji-Man Choi. It was now an 8-2 game.

It would be a mistake to call a six-run lead “safe” against the Yankees with four innings to play, and the Rays bullpen didn’t pull any punches. John Curtiss, the right-hander who was touched up for five runs in Game 1, worked around a pair of hits to throw 1.2 scoreless frames, and the rookie Shane McClanahan pitched sufficiently behind him, recording the next four outs while allowing just two baserunners. One of those was the result of an error, while the other was yet another baseball blasted by Giancarlo Stanton to kingdom come.

The efficiency of the Rays’ bullpen matched a solid start by Morton. He began the day with two perfect frames, including strikeouts of Stanton and Gio Urshela. Then he began to lose his command in the third inning. Brett Gardner and Kyle Higashioka each grounded singles between the third baseman and the shortstop with one out, followed by a five-pitch walk to LeMahieu. That loaded the bases for Aaron Judge, who swung at the first pitch and flew out to right field to score the tying run from third. Morton immediately reloaded the bases by walking Aaron Hicks on five pitches, then fell behind Voit 3-0.

The strike calls and ground ball that followed weren’t the only times Morton got away with allowing less damage than he could have. With one out in the fifth, LeMahieu chopped a single up the third base line that Wendle couldn’t make a play on. Two batters later, Morton hung a curveball down the center to Hicks, who merely clubbed an RBI double instead of launching a two-run homer. Morton hung another curveball to Voit in the very next at-bat but got him to fly out harmlessly to center.

That was how the game entire game seemed to go for New York — the lineup you’re not supposed to be allowed to make mistakes against simply let too many go unpunished.

If the Yankees are going to keep their season alive with a win in Game 4, which begins Thursday at 7:10 p.m. EST, it will likely require them doing more against the Rays’ bullpen than they have been able to accomplish to this point. New York’s total of eight runs in 12 innings against Tampa Bay’s relievers doesn’t seem at all concerning until you remember that five of them came in just one inning against Curtiss in Game 1. Aside from that, Rays relievers have been effective at shutting down a Yankees lineup that was red-hot coming into the series.

Slowing down Tampa Bay’s offense, meanwhile, suddenly looks like a difficult task as well. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery will be the one facing that challenge as New York’s starter in Game 4, which will mark the first postseason appearance of his career. Montgomery had poor results (5.11 ERA) but good peripherals (3.87 FIP) in 10 starts this season, one of which was an outing against Tampa Bay in which he recorded just two outs before allowing five runs on four hits and exiting the game.

The Rays, meanwhile, have yet to announce their plans for Game 4. The team has lefty Ryan Yarbrough (3.56 ERA, 3.80 FIP in 55.2 innings) ready if it wants to use him. But after the first three starters of the series each threw five innings, Tampa Bay’s deep bullpen is reasonably well-rested to handle a longer assignment if the team prefers to go that route.

After looking like an unstoppable wrecking crew just two days ago, the Yankees now have their season hanging by a thread. They knew coming into this series it would be tough to outpitch the Rays. They might not have guessed it would be this hard to outslug them.