The Tampa Bay Rays completed a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series on Wednesday night, winning Game 3 4-3 at a sold-out Yankee Stadium to end another October run for the Bronx club.
For the 17th consecutive year, the Yankees will not be World Series champions, falling short of a 28th title. After never trailing in their wild-card sweep of the Red Sox, the Yankees never led against the Rays, mustering only five runs across the three games, the New York Post reported.
How Game 3 unfolded
The Rays struck first for the third straight game, taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Jonathan Aranda's two-out single. The Yankees answered both times Tampa Bay edged ahead: Ben Rice tied it 1-1 in the third, and Anthony Volpe raced home from first on Spencer Jones's double in the fourth after Ryan Vilade's solo homer put the Rays up 2-1.
The decisive blow came in the sixth, when Victor Mesa Jr. crushed a two-run shot off Max Fried to make it 4-2. Trailing 4-2, the Yankees briefly believed they had tied it on a two-run homer from Volpe — but a crew-chief review ruled fan interference, since a fan had reached over the left-field wall, and the play became an RBI double that cut the lead to 4-3. Spencer Jones then struck out to strand Volpe at second, and Trent Grisham chased a pitch out of the zone with the tying run on second to end the ninth.
A familiar October ending
The playoff run ended with captain Aaron Judge watching from the dugout, unable to return from a right calf strain suffered in mid-September. Judge had already missed more than half of the regular season with a right rib stress fracture, the Post reported. A year after exiting the ALDS in four games against the Blue Jays, the Yankees head into another offseason of questions about how to end their drought — if and when baseball is played next year, with a lockout looming.
Sources:
New York Post — Yankees' season ends in bitter disappointment again as Rays sweep ALDS
For the 17th consecutive year, the Yankees will not be World Series champions, falling short of a 28th title. After never trailing in their wild-card sweep of the Red Sox, the Yankees never led against the Rays, mustering only five runs across the three games, the New York Post reported.
How Game 3 unfolded
The Rays struck first for the third straight game, taking a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Jonathan Aranda's two-out single. The Yankees answered both times Tampa Bay edged ahead: Ben Rice tied it 1-1 in the third, and Anthony Volpe raced home from first on Spencer Jones's double in the fourth after Ryan Vilade's solo homer put the Rays up 2-1.
The decisive blow came in the sixth, when Victor Mesa Jr. crushed a two-run shot off Max Fried to make it 4-2. Trailing 4-2, the Yankees briefly believed they had tied it on a two-run homer from Volpe — but a crew-chief review ruled fan interference, since a fan had reached over the left-field wall, and the play became an RBI double that cut the lead to 4-3. Spencer Jones then struck out to strand Volpe at second, and Trent Grisham chased a pitch out of the zone with the tying run on second to end the ninth.
A familiar October ending
The playoff run ended with captain Aaron Judge watching from the dugout, unable to return from a right calf strain suffered in mid-September. Judge had already missed more than half of the regular season with a right rib stress fracture, the Post reported. A year after exiting the ALDS in four games against the Blue Jays, the Yankees head into another offseason of questions about how to end their drought — if and when baseball is played next year, with a lockout looming.
Sources:
New York Post — Yankees' season ends in bitter disappointment again as Rays sweep ALDS
