ALDS Game 3 Recap and End of Season Review
Do you remember when Anthony Volpe hit a deep fly ball to right field and saved the Yankees’ season?
You really don’t remember?
Me neither.
Because it never happened.
In the postseason, a baseball team can only make so many errors before it’s too late. Between Austin Wells’s baserunning blunder in Game 1, four charged errors in Game 2, and Trent Grisham batting leadoff in Game 3, the Yankees embarrassed themselves and got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS.
In four straight postseasons, the Yankees have watched another team celebrate in their building. On Wednesday, for the second time in less than three weeks, the Rays partied at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees, with the third-highest payroll in baseball, got swept by the team with the second-lowest.
If that isn’t embarrassing enough, consider that the Yankees have failed to beat a higher-seeded team in a traditional playoff series in nine straight seasons under Aaron Boone. They haven’t won a road playoff game against a non-AL Central team since 2019, and for the second straight year, they lost in the ALDS to a first-place team that missed the playoffs the year before.
The Yankees have made the playoffs in eight of Boone’s nine seasons, but have been eliminated five times in or before the ALDS. One reason for this is Boone’s poor decision-making. While he dictated pitching matchups effectively throughout this postseason, he made one costly error on Wednesday: having Grisham lead off.
According to Jomboy Media, Grisham’s .104 batting average is the worst among 17 players with at least 75 leadoff plate appearances this season. The Yankees like him leading off because they claim he can work the count and get on base, but he also has the lowest on-base percentage (.241) on the list.
What a mind-boggling decision! Of course, the decision came back to bite the Yankees when Grisham struck out with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. He finished the game 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, and in the series, he went 0-for-11 with five strikeouts.
Add this to the list of season-altering Boone mistakes, including using young Deivi Garcia as an opener in the 2020 ALDS and having Nestor Cortes, who hadn’t pitched in months, face Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 1 of the 2024 World Series.
At this point, Boone has become impossible to defend. Every year, the result is the same: the Yankees win ninety-something games and embarrass themselves in the playoffs. This year, like in 2024, Boone made a poor decision, and the Yankees committed a parade of defensive errors. Their Game 2 performance made the ALDS unwinnable.
Clearly, missing Aaron Judge mattered. Had he been healthy, Ben Rice might have led off in Game 3 instead of Grisham. Yes, the Rays played like the better team. They were the better team coming into the series, too. But the Yankees could have at least given themselves a chance in Game 2. After that disaster, the series was all but over.
The 2026 Yankees overcame many hurdles to reach the postseason. The team could have folded when Judge landed on the injured list in early June, and again in late August. But the players stuck together, endured a long offensive drought in late June, and found their stride by the All-Star Break.
With their four-headed monster rotation, featuring Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and Carlos Rodón, the Yankees felt they could beat any team in a long playoff series. Unfortunately, offensive and defensive shortcomings prevented their starters from succeeding this postseason, and Rodón didn’t throw a single pitch.
Fried, who landed on the IL twice this season with an elbow injury, tried to save the Yankees’ season on Wednesday. But with two outs in the top of the sixth, he hung a sweeper over the middle to Victor Mesa Jr., who crushed it over the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center field, putting the Rays up 4-2 and ending Fried’s night.
In the bottom of the sixth, Anthony Volpe sent Yankee Stadium into a frenzy with a home run to left field, but the call was overturned for fan interference. Had the fan not reached over the wall, the ball probably would not have cleared. The umpires allowed one run to score, but the Yankees still trailed 4-3.
After that, the Rays retired 10 of their next 12 batters as the Yankees went down quietly into the night. Jazz Chisholm Jr., left out of the starting lineup, pinch-hit in the seventh inning, but he popped up the second pitch to first base. Then, in the eighth, Giancarlo Stanton stepped into the box for his second at-bat since late April, but he struck out swinging on a low changeup.
Boone left Chisholm out of the Game 3 lineup because of his non-competitive at-bats and shaky defense. He nearly made two errors in the first inning of Game 2, but George Lombard Jr. saved him. In what might have been their last series in pinstripes, Chisholm and Grisham went 0-for-19 combined.
After the game, Chisholm seemed pretty dejected. He refused to answer any questions about how he found out he wasn’t in the Game 3 lineup. Chisholm probably won’t be back this year, and his postgame comments suggested he was frustrated with Boone.
Meanwhile, Judge was heated postgame. He called out the front office for not acquiring enough talent. Remember, Brian Cashman passed on acquiring a catcher or any relievers at the deadline. The Yankees’ lineup was filled with platoon bats, including at center field, first base, second base, and third base. They weren’t good enough.
Furthermore, we might not even have baseball next season. Per a source, teams are operating as if the Winter Meetings have been cancelled. A lockout seems likely as the league and players’ union keep bashing heads over a salary cap. The negotiations are not progressing.
Whether or not there is baseball next season, the Yankees still wasted another season in the Judge era, extending their championship drought to 17 seasons. This sets the second-longest streak in franchise history and the longest stretch since the franchise’s first title, passing the 16-season mark initially set between 1979 and 1995.
The “27-Time World Champion New York Yankees” are no more. The team can only return to glory by shaking things up; the same result every year is excruciating. The first step is to fire Boone. With an extended offseason, the Yankees have plenty of time to find their next skipper.
Cover Image Courtesy: New York Yankees
