Rasmussen Stuns Yankees With Near No-Hitter in ALDS Opener

The New York Yankees finally got a hit off Drew Rasmussen on Saturday night. Then they immediately gave it back. Tampa Bay's ace carried a no-hit bid into the eighth inning of a one-hit shutout that handed the Rays the ALDS opener, with Jonathan Aranda's third-inning solo homer supplying all the scoring, as reported by the Associated Press. The Yankees, who had just scored 18 runs sweeping Boston out of the wild-card round, managed a single hit all night — and did it without their biggest bat, since Aaron Judge was left off the ALDS roster with a calf injury. For the latest on every October series, check out our sports page.

The lone hit became the night's most painful moment. Catcher Austin Wells broke up the bid with a two-out double in the eighth, slicing a liner just inside the right-field foul line. Hungry for more, he tried to stretch it into a triple and ran straight through the third-base coach's stop sign, getting nailed on the relay to Junior Caminero. "Just obviously not a good decision there," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, as reported by USA Today. Wells didn't argue the call. "But in the moment, us being aggressive, like I said, we didn't really have much going on there in the game, so every 90 feet matters," he said.

Rasmussen carved up the Yankees lineup

The box score behind Rasmussen's start borders on absurd. He struck out 10 and walked two across eight innings, landing 69 of 101 pitches for strikes while generating 23 swings and misses — a personal career high, according to ESPN Research. At one point he retired 15 consecutive batters, and his bid for history stretched into the eighth, the deepest postseason no-hit attempt since Roy Halladay's no-hitter for Philadelphia back in 2010. Bryan Baker slammed the door in the ninth with a perfect inning, freezing pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton — who hadn't taken a big-league at-bat since late April — to seal the combined one-hitter.

New York's pitching deserved better. Gerrit Cole kept the Yankees in it with five innings of one-run ball, striking out five, and the bullpen trio of Ryan Weathers, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick combined for three scoreless frames. Aranda's homer was the only damage — a solo shot off Cole that marked the first postseason hit of the Tampa infielder's career. It was the Rays' first postseason victory since the 2020 World Series, and it came the old-fashioned way: one great arm and one swing.

Why the Yankees left their captain off the roster

The loudest absence of the night was a name that never appeared on the lineup card. Judge, a three-time AL MVP, has been sidelined since mid-September and simply wasn't healthy enough to justify a spot in a short five-game series. The Yankees gambled that a lineup fresh off their wild-card sweep of Boston could survive without him. One hit later, that bet looks shaky.

There is a subplot in Stanton, too. The Yankees carried him on the ALDS roster specifically as a pinch-hit weapon, and Saturday delivered the exact scenario they had in mind: down a run in the ninth, one swing able to flip the series. Baker struck him out on a changeup instead. Boone still came away encouraged. "I thought he had a really good at-bat," the manager said, as reported by Pinstripe Nation. "I liked what I saw." If the Yankees extend this series, Stanton's bat could yet be their late-game answer.

Game 2 is must-win territory on Monday night

The history is not kind to New York right now. Teams that take the opener of a division series go on to win the series roughly 73 percent of the time, according to Flashscore. The Yankees get their chance to even things Monday night in Tampa, with the second game of the best-of-five set scheduled for Tropicana Field. The formula for the visitors is simple: get to a Tampa starter early, because Rasmussen showed what happens when you don't.

For the Rays, Saturday was a reminder that October belongs to whoever pitches best in the moment. One dominant starter, one home run, one hit allowed — and a Yankees lineup that suddenly looks very human without its captain. New York has about 48 hours to find an answer before the series slips away.