NEW YORK — Max Fried gave up two home runs, the New York Yankees had one taken off the board by fan interference and then their season ended Thursday night with a whimper.
After Anthony Volpe's would-be tying homer in the bottom of the sixth inning turned into a double on video review, the Yankees did not get a runner past second base. When leadoff hitter Trent Grisham struck out to end the ninth, it capped a 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3 of the AL Division Series and a series sweep that extended the Yankees' championship drought to 17 years.
“Disappointment,” Game 3 starter Max Fried said. “It’s not the way that we wanted it to end, not up to what we were expecting.”
After sweeping Boston in the Wild Card Series, New York never led against the Rays and has not advanced past a higher-seeded team in the postseason since 2020.
Asked to explain why the past two seasons ended without being able to get over the hump, likely AL Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler called it a great question and responded, “I don’t really have an answer.”
Without injured slugger Aaron Judge, the Yankees were one-hit and shut out in the opener, when catcher Austin Wells' baserunning blunder loomed large. Game 2 included four errors to get pushed to the brink of elimination.
The Yankees didn't go quietly — at least initially. When Fried gave up a run apiece in the third and fourth innings, the bats responded each time to tie the score.
Victor Mesa Jr. crushed Fried's 80th and final pitch for a go-ahead, two-run home run that was far from a short-porch homer like Ryan Vilade's earlier.
“It’s just as simple as I threw a bad pitch,” Fried said. “I left it up and the guy hit a home run, which was two runs and it put it out of reach. ... We played a really sound game and did enough win, and unfortunately I didn’t do enough to be able to kind of hold up my end of the bargain.”
It looked like New York would get it right back in a redemption moment for Volpe, but a Jeffrey Maier-esque moment came back to haunt the home team 30 years later.
Volpe looked to have a home run to left field, and it was called a home run by the umpires on the field. Video review determined the fan did interference, the play was scored an RBI double for Volpe, but the run that did not turned out to be the difference.
With the air sucked out of Yankee Stadium, Spencer Jones — who singled and doubled in his first two plate appearances — struck out swinging to end the threat. The eighth started with Paul Goldschmidt reaching on a throwing error and finished with fellow pinch-hitter with Giancarlo Stanton striking out in just his second at-bat of the postseason.
“They pitched well against us, and we had no answers for it,” Jones said.
Stanton got chances to swing the bat after strained calf muscles in each of his legs sidelined him since April 24. Judge was not afforded the same opportunity, left off the rosters for the AL Wild Card Series and the ALDS because of his calf injury.
“It definitely hurts," Judge said, unwilling to speculate whether he thought he would have been able to alter the result. "You want to be out there. You do all the rehab, all the work, come in here early, stay late — any time you’re banged up, you try to get out there as soon as you can. It definitely hurts not getting a chance to be out there and battling.”
The Yankees hit .130 in the series and were outscored 10-5.
“Obviously, they have some good arms, but we had the talent in here to combat that,” said left fielder Cody Bellinger, who was 1 for 12. “Didn’t really continue to get that big hit with runners in scoring position.”
Aaron Boone again fell short of a title in his ninth season as manager, and some fans chanted “Fire Boone!” as they streamed to the exits. He has a year left on his contract and expects to return.
“That’s for another day,” Boone said. “Right now is about trying to reflect on this, trying to connect with guys right now as much as I can. Appreciative of a lot of things, but those conversations and things are for another day.”
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