Yankees unravel on defense with three errors in ALDS Game 2 opener

The New York Yankees opened ALDS Game 2 with a disastrous defensive inning on Monday night, committing three errors in the first at-bat sequence against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. The miscues handed Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead and forced presumed AL Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler to work far harder than the box score might suggest just to escape the frame.

McMahon misplay sparks historically rough inning

The trouble began on the very first batter when Yandy Diaz hit a sharp grounder toward third base that should have produced a routine out. Ryan McMahon failed to handle the hop cleanly, allowing the ball to get past him for the night’s first error. Jonathan Aranda followed with a well-placed ground ball single inside the infield, putting runners on first and second with nobody out and immediately putting New York’s defense under pressure.

Junior Caminero then rolled a ball toward the left side that forced shortstop George Lombard Jr. to range into the hole. Lombard did well to glove it and flip to second, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. tried to turn a difficult double play and airmailed the throw to first. Diaz crossed the plate with the game’s opening run while Caminero advanced to second, giving the Yankees a second error in the inning instead of a simpler out.

Schlittler appeared to rebound by freezing cleanup hitter Liam Hicks on an 0-2 fastball over the plate, but the apparent strikeout turned into yet another setback. Hicks’ partial swing clipped catcher Austin Wells’ mitt, and replay review upheld a catcher’s interference call, putting Hicks on first and officially charging New York with its third error of the frame. It marked the first time the franchise has been charged with three errors in a single postseason inning.

Missed double-play chance extends Rays’ pressure

With Caminero at second and Hicks at first, speedster Chandler Simpson hit a ground ball directly to Chisholm at second base. His feed pulled Lombard off the bag before the infielder recovered to record a force at second, eliminating any chance at an inning-ending double play. Scored as a fielder’s choice, the flawed execution still represented a fourth defensive breakdown by New York in the span of the Rays’ first five hitters.

Schlittler finally induced a routine grounder from Victor Mesa Jr. to end the inning, stranding runners at the corners. Outside of Aranda’s single, Rays hitters produced a series of ground balls that could have yielded a clean, low-stress inning, but New York repeatedly failed to convert them into outs. During the regular season, the Yankees already ranked near the top of the league in catcher interference calls, with Wells responsible for several of them, and those tendencies resurfaced at the worst time.

Tampa Bay’s style, built on contact, speed and pressure on infielders, has been a challenge for opponents all year, and the Yankees’ long-standing defensive inconsistency was exposed again in Game 2. Before the series, manager Aaron Boone acknowledged the importance of clean defense at Tropicana Field, saying it was "important we take care of the ball and get the outs that should be outs." In the opening inning Monday, New York did the opposite and paid for it immediately.