{"id":354223,"date":"2026-09-23T03:16:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T03:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354223\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T03:16:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T03:16:58","slug":"yankees-split-doubleheader-vs-rays-lose-al-east-race-after-rodon-dominates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/354223\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees split doubleheader vs. Rays, lose AL East race after Rod\u00f3n dominates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees<\/a> staved off the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 celebration for a few extra hours.<\/p>\n

With no margin for error in their American League East chase, the Yankees began Tuesday\u2019s split doubleheader in the Bronx with a 2-0 victory over the Rays behind eight stellar innings from Carlos Rod\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

But by the end of the night, it was the Rays who were reveling in a champagne-soaked visitors clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n

By dropping the second game of the doubleheader, 6-1, the Yankees were eliminated from AL East contention as the Rays clinched the division title<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we wanted to push [their celebration] off if we could,\u201d Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cCredit to them, they beat us today. \u2026 They put together a fantastic regular season to earn that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rays starter Drew Rasmussen outdueled Max Fried in the nightcap, holding the Yankees without a hit until Heliot Ramos led off the seventh with a double.<\/p>\n

The Yankees (90-67) will be the AL\u2019s top wild-card team, meaning they will host a best-of-three Wild Card playoff series \u2014 likely against the archrival Boston Red Sox \u2014 next week.<\/p>\n

While not the worst-case scenario, it\u2019s a sobering outcome for a Yankees team that\u2019s stayed afloat amid a season-long rash of injuries \u2014 namely to top sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton \u2014 but that boasts a payroll roughly three times that of the unrelenting Rays (96-51).<\/p>\n

That outcome became all but inevitable over the weekend when the Yankees fell six games behind the Rays with seven to play.<\/p>\n

The Yankees thus entered this week\u2019s four-game series knowing they would have to sweep Tampa Bay in order to keep their dwindling division dreams alive.<\/p>\n

Rod\u00f3n rose to the occasion in the first game, striking out eight over his season-high eight innings while limiting the Rays to three hits (all singles) and no walks.<\/p>\n

His final strikeout was the 1,500th of his career. After his 96th and final pitch of the day, Rod\u00f3n walked off the mound to a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

With the win \u2014 the 100th of his career \u2014 Rod\u00f3n improved to 7-3 with a 2.67 ERA in 16 starts. A two-run home run by Cody Bellinger against Rays starter Nick Martinez in the fourth inning was all the offense Rod\u00f3n and the Yankees needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos is throwing the ball really well right now,\u201d Boone said. \u201cToday [was] as good as any time that he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was \u201cpotentially\u201d the final start of the regular season for Rod\u00f3n, according to Boone, who said the Yankees have not yet determined whether the left-hander might come out of the bullpen in the Wild Card round.<\/p>\n

AL Cy Young Award favorite Cam Schlittler is a sure thing to start one of the Wild Card games, while Boone said last week that he expects Gerrit Cole to start one, too.<\/p>\n

That would leave one more Wild Card game for either Rod\u00f3n or Fried, who fell Tuesday night to 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA in 20 starts.<\/p>\n

In six playoff starts with the Yankees, Rod\u00f3n is 1-2 with a 6.92 ERA. But the left-hander has been a model of consistency since last August, having allowed three runs or fewer in 26 consecutive starts \u2014 a franchise record.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth-wise, I feel good,\u201d said Rod\u00f3n, who has been limited to 84.1 innings this year due to his recovery from offseason elbow surgery and a subsequent bout with elbow inflammation.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence is good. And as you know, [in the] playoffs, anything can happen. You get the best out of everybody. It\u2019ll be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees couldn\u2019t carry the momentum into Tuesday\u2019s second game, however, as the right-handed Rasmussen \u2014 long a thorn in their side \u2014 hurled 6.2 innings of one-run ball with 11 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Despite going hitless through six innings, the Yankees kept it close until the seventh, when the Rays manufactured a three-run rally against Fried and reliever John Schreiber.<\/p>\n

An RBI bunt single by Taylor Walls in front of Fried pushed across the Rays\u2019 second run of the game, while a two-out, two-run single by Yandy D\u00edaz against Schreiber allowed two inherited runners to score.<\/p>\n

All of those runs were charged to Fried, who finished with a line of 6.2 innings, four runs, two walks and four strikeouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want anyone to be celebrating at your stadium,\u201d said Fried, who threw 97 pitches, his most since returning on Aug. 29 after a second IL stint for an elbow bone bruise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still confident in the group that we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees have two more games against the Rays before they finish the regular season with a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles in the Bronx over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Boone said the Yankees\u2019 rotation will remain on turn but that the Yankees will try to find chances to rest key players.<\/p>\n

With their playoff seed now locked, the Yankees can turn their attention to the Wild Card round, where, barring the unforeseen, they will face Boston for a second consecutive postseason.<\/p>\n

The Yankees won last year\u2019s playoff series in three games before ultimately being eliminated in the ALDS.<\/p>\n

Should the Yankees return to the ALDS this year, the Rays \u2014 who also clinched a first-round bye with Tuesday\u2019s win \u2014 will be waiting for them there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of sucks,\u201d second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said of falling short of the division crown. \u201cThat\u2019s what we work on all season, but it\u2019s not the end goal for us. That end goal is the World Series, so it doesn\u2019t really affect us here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees staved off the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 celebration for a few extra hours. With no margin for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[68632,128,5311,13917,34720,20,9,24,63,36575,129,131,130,16301],"class_list":["post-354223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-al-east","tag-bronx","tag-carlos-rodon","tag-cody-bellinger","tag-max-fried","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rays","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}