The Yankees came into the ALDS riding high, having crushed their archrivals in the Wild Card Series, the lineup coming alive just in time. Unfortunately, just as quickly as they woke up, the bats fell asleep, no match for Rays ace Drew Rasmussen in a 1-0 shutout loss to Tampa Bay.

New York’s downfall started (and in a way ended) when Gerrit Cole gave up a solo home run in the third, the primary blemish in what was a five-inning outing with five hits and one earned run. Cole left a changeup up, and Jonathan Aranda sent a deep fly into the right-field seats:

Cole was replaced by Ryan Weathers, who made his return to the mound after a stint on the injured list with a left elbow injury, and didn’t allow the Rays’ offense to inflict any more damage. Paul Blackburn replaced Weathers in the bottom of the seventh and recorded one walk in 1.2 innings. Brent Headrick followed, who walked one batter before escaping with two runners on to end the eighth.

As for the Yankees offense, well, there isn’t much to speak of, as the lineup Boone sent out simply couldn’t make any headway against the Rays’ elite pitching staff. Rasmussen ended up pitching eight scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and two walks, completely shutting down the Yankees’ ambitions of getting ahead early in the series. Rasmussen kept the Yankees not just out of the run column, but blanked them in the hit column until the eighth, missing a no-hitter by just four outs as Austin Wells broke things up with a two-out double in the eighth.

Yet that moment also brought one of the most notable errors in the Yankees’ decision-making, with Wells attempting to stretch his double into a triple. His speed wasn’t enough to get him to third, and the Yankees’ catcher got thrown out to end the inning. Victor Mesa made the throw to shortstop Taylor Walls, who immediately tagged Wells as he went for the slide. An aerial view showed that third base coach Luis Rojas was trying to hold Wells up, so it really was just Wells inexplicably attempting to get to third base with two outs:

It’s worth noting that Giancarlo Stanton made his first appearance at the plate since April, pinch-hitting for Ryan McMahon, and sadly struck out in four pitches from Rays reliever Bryan Baker as the Yankees’ attempt at a ninth-inning rally went nowhere fast, Baker also striking out Ben Rice and getting Cody Bellinger to ground out to end the game.

Though the Yankees may be on the road and striving for a victory in Game 2, it remains to be seen whether Boone will change the lineup and experiment with other position players to shuffle the order. There wasn’t much to smile about today, with the small exceptions of Stanton’s cameo appearance, and the solid showing from Weathers after a layoff. Sunday will give the Yankees another day of rest to regroup. Hopefully, we’ll see a different result come Monday.

Box Score

LOS ANGELES — It was as if six months of torment, six months of pent-up frustration, and six months of trying to prove himself to a new organization and fanbase, came pouring out of his soul Saturday afternoon with one swing of the bat.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kyle Tucker, or commonly known in Los Angeles as a $60-million-a year bust, swung mightily, stood at the plate, and watched the ball sail high and deep into the Dodgers bullpen, before taking off on a home-run trot as the paid crowd of 50,194 at Dodger Stadium screamed in ecstasy.

When Tucker strolled around the bases, he threw his hands up in the air between first and second, and when he rounded third, broke into a grin that could be seen all the way to Pasadena. His teammates pounded the dugout in euphoria, and when he came towards the dugout, vigorously high-fived teammate Teoscar Hernandez, and received a sunflower seed shower and bear hug from Mookie Betts that was so tight he nearly lost his breath.

“I think I was more excited than him," said Hernandez, who singled ahead of Tucker in the sixth inning of the Dodgers’ 5-3 victory over Atlanta in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. “We've been going through a lot this year, but we stayed together. We have each other's back."

The Dodgers will tell you it didn’t really matter who was their offensive hero, but to a man, they couldn’t have been happier that it was Tucker.

“We were all excited for him," infielder Miguel Rojas said. “Tucker is a superstar, man. He’s a great hitter, a great player, he knows when to turn it on. …There’s no doubt in my mind that he was going to come through in the biggest stage of our season.

“Even if he doesn’t, I really don’t care. He shouldn’t have the weight of the team on his shoulder that he has to carry this team. Just do your job, go out, and enjoy your season.’’

Well, his debut season with the Dodgers just became a whole lot more enjoyable, with his two-run home run not only providing Tarik Skubal all of the support he needed after giving up just two hits and one run in six innings, but it was sweet redemption for Tucker.

“I mean, I was excited," he said, surrounded by a horde of reporters at his locker. “Anytime you can contribute to a win, whether it’s early in the game, late in the game, is huge. So I just try to do my part. Same thing with everyone else in this clubhouse. No one’s going out there putting up selfish at-bats or anything. It doesn’t really matter how you do statistically as long as you’re coming away with a win.

“Everyone’s just trying to help each other get to the end goal of winning a World Series, so it’s a nice start today with the win."

LOS ANGELES – Tarik Skubal walked off the mound after drawing a flyout from Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Olson to get out of the sixth inning and looked over at Blake Snell once he got in the dugout.

"Has it been this hot all game?" Skubal asked.

"It's amazing what your brain can do," Skubal added as he reflected on a scorching 103-degree day at Dodger Stadium. "In certain circumstances and moments, it's amazing what you can control and kind of eliminate. I actually didn't think it was horrible when I was pitching, ... but yeah, it was a hot one."

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made no secret of his preference to play at night when asked about it earlier in the week, but once the San Diego Padres swept the Chicago Cubs in the wild card series on Wednesday, the Dodgers were boxed into a 1 p.m. local start time amid a heat wave fueled by El Niño. It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit when Skubal threw his first pitch Saturday and the temperature continued to rise from there in an eventual 5-3 win that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 series lead in the NLDS.

It was the Dodgers' hottest postseason game on record since Game 1 of the 2017 World Series.

But as Roberts looked back on that day nine years ago, he emphasized that there's nothing anyone can truly do about the weather except to stay hydrated. The Braves felt prepared, with Lane Thomas and manager Walt Weiss noting pregame it actually felt a little cooler than summers in Atlanta due to the humidity.

Teoscar Hernández got the Dodgers on the board with a towering 431-foot, two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth that set the tone offensively for LA; he echoed the sentiment.

"I don't think we were too concerned about the heat or anything like that," Hernández said in Spanish. "We were focused on doing what we needed to do to win, try and win the game."

Like me, no doubt, you feel as though you just had the most wonderful, awful, stressful and joyous 2.5 hours of your baseball fan life.

The actual recap can be quick.

The Rays got five hits. Kudos to Palacios and Hicks for hitting doubles, both of which bounced off the right-center wall just feet away from leaving the park. But they were stranded, as were Diaz and Mesa who hit singles, and Hicks and Caminero, who walked (Cami walked twice).

But only one hit actually resulted in a run; that was Jonathan Aranda’s third inning home run.

So thanks, Johnny, for that!

But otherwise the story of the game was Drew Rasmussen (with assists from some good fielding and a very bad mistake by Yankee catcher Austin Wells).

I have no words to describe Rasmussen’s night. He gave up one hit and two walks while striking out ten, that’s good for sure.

But the numbers don’t do this performance justice. To be focused, efficient, and dominant like this IN A PLAYOFF GAME with no margin for error. To be so efficient that Kevin Cash lets you pitch eight innings, during 7.2 of which the Yankees recorded no hits at all.

To generate TWENTY-THREE (23!) whiffs.

To get major league hitters to do this:

The only hit for the Yankees came with two outs in the eight, and it actually ended in an out. Austin Wells hit the ball well, but for….reasons….the Yankee catcher was so determined to turn this into a triple that he never even looked up to see his third base coach signaling for him to hold at second base.

It took an outstanding throw from Victor Mesa Jr. in right field and a sharp relay from Taylor Walls, of course, but did the Yankees expect any less? So the Yankees only base runner was wiped out at third base to end the eighth inning.

This reminded me a bit of the famous 2019 ALDS relay — Kiermaier to Adames to d’Arnaud. That was more impressive in that there was more distance to cover (deep center field to home), but this one was more significant because of the tight score.

Bryan Baker then polished off the Yankees in the ninth inning, adding two strikeouts of his own.

To be sure, this game was a bit frustrating on the offensive side. Gerrit Cole didn’t seem particularly sharp yet the Rays couldn’t capitalize on the base runners they had (not many strikeouts but lots of weak contact). With the Yankees set to bring out two much better starters on Monday and Wednesday, it would be nice to have some confidence that the Rays hitters were swinging well.

In a five game series, however, winning the first game is a huge boost, and we can celebrate. Until the anxiety starts all over again on Monday.

Heroes, zeros and the inside pitch from the Yankees’ 1-0 loss to the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS in St. Petersburg, Fla:  

Hero 

If the Yankees are going to win the series, they probably will have to figure out Drew Rasmussen. A Yankee killer all year, the righty took a no-hitter into the eighth and bulldozed a powerful lineup. 

Zero 

Mere seconds after providing the most promising moment of the night for the Yankees, Austin Wells provided the least. The catcher smacked a hit down the right field line to break up Rasmussen’s no-hitter, then was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. 

Unsung hero 

The Rays did little against Gerrit Cole and a trio of Yankees relievers apart from Jonathan Aranda, who crushed a home run to deep right-center for the only run-producing swing of the night. 

Key stat 

1: Hit by the same Yankees team that collected 26 in two games against the Red Sox. 

Quote

“You have to take risks. But in that situation, obviously the risk was wrong.” 

— Austin Wells

Tampa Bay starter Drew Rasmussen nearly made postseason history, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and Jonathan Aranda smacked a solo home run Saturday night as the Rays beat the Yankees, 1-0, in Game 1 of the Division Series at Tropicana Field.

Rasmussen, the Rays’ ace, threw eight shutout innings, allowing only one hit. He struck out 10 and walked two.

The Yanks had a chance to get to Rasmussen when they finally got a hit against him with two outs in the eighth inning. But Austin Wells tried to stretch an easy double into a triple and was thrown out by a large margin.

Gerrit Cole threw five good innings for the Yankees. But even coming off an offensive splurge in the previous series against Boston, the Yanks couldn’t get anything going. Aaron Judge might’ve helped, but he is still managing that calf injury and is not on the roster for the Division Series.

Here are the takeaways...

-Wells, who had a terrific Wild Card Series against Boston, finally got the first hit off Rasmussen, with two outs in the eighth inning. But the play ended in a way that’s sure to be dwelled upon, at least by Yankee fans. Wells laced a ball that just stayed fair down the right-field line for an extra-base hit. But Wells tried to stretch a gimme double into three bases but was easily thrown out at third. The Rays’ really sharp relay went from right fielder Victor Mesa to shortstop Taylor Walls to Junior Caminero at third.

-Rasmussen will get another chance to pitch in this series, which could be alarming news for the Yankees. Saturday, he got 23 swings-and-misses all told, including 10 on 18 cuts at his baffling changeup. Rasmussen, who boasts an arsenal similar to Cam Schlittler in that he, too, uses three fastballs, averaged 96.2 miles per hour on his four-seam fastball and also featured a cutter and sinker. He threw 101 pitches, 69 for strikes and had retired 15 straight before Wells’ hit.

-There have only been three no-hit games in postseason history – Don Larsen’s perfect game for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series, Roy Halladay’s Division Series no-no for the Phillies in 2010 and a combined no-hitter by the Astros in the 2022 World Series.

-The Rays did not have Rasmussen, who’s had three arm surgeries in his career, start the ninth, instead choosing closer Bryan Baker. Baker converted 41-of-44 save chances during the regular season, including a streak of 30 in a row and had a 1.44 ERA. He faced pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton, who had not played since April because of injury. Baker struck out Stanton for the first out of the inning, caught Ben Rice looking at a changeup for strike three and Cody Bellinger grounded to first.

-Cole threw five strong innings, allowing only that one run on Aranda’s homer, and gave up five hits while striking out five and walking one. He threw 58 of his 82 pitches for strikes and got 11 swings-and-misses. There were a couple of moments of loud contact beyond Aranda’s homer – Richie Palacios missed a home run by only a few feet in the second inning. His drive to right-center hit the top of the wall, good for a double. Liam Hicks doubled off the right-center wall one out after Aranda’s homer, but Cole stranded him. Cole had an entertaining battle with Caminero to end the fifth inning, a dramatic 12-pitch encounter that resulted in a strikeout as Caminero looked at a breaking ball. That was Cole’s last batter.

-Cole has a 2.73 ERA now in 23 career October starts and has allowed one earned run or less in 11 of those outings. In five career postseason starts against Tampa Bay, Cole has a 1.69 ERA.

-Aranda’s home run was his first career hit in the postseason and it traveled 417 feet and left his bat at 107.1 miles per hour. Aranda had been 2-for-10 lifetime against Cole before the tater.

-Ryan Weathers, who had not pitched since Aug. 22, relieved Cole and threw a scoreless sixth inning, getting three groundouts to first base. Paul Blackburn threw 1.2 scoreless frames and Brent Headrick got the final out of the eighth for the Yankees.

-How vital can an ABS challenge be? One might have helped the Yankees get out of a sticky second inning. Wells challenged a 1-2 pitch to Chandler Simpson that was called a ball with two runners on base. It was reviewed and overturned, resulting in an inning-ending strikeout that stranded two. During the regular season, Wells was successful 82 times in 131 challenges, or 62.6 percent. Overall in MLB, catchers succeeded on 59 percent of their challenges. Only two catchers had more successful challenges than Wells.

Game MVP: Drew Rasmussen

He’s now the owner of the longest no-hit bid in Rays postseason history and was really never in trouble. He brought a career 1.81 ERA against the Yankees into the start and was even more remarkable than usual against them. 

Highlights

On the Yankees’ first hit of the night, Austin Wells is thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple pic.twitter.com/drWf58P2Bg

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) October 4, 2026

What's next

The Yankees and Rays continue their best-of-five series Monday at 8 p.m.

Cam Schlittler will take the mound while Tampa has yet to announce a starter.

It was so hot at Dodger Stadium on Saturday...

How hot was it?

It was so hot a team that averaged nearly 50,000 fans for occasionally meaningless regular-season games beat the Atlanta Braves 5-3 in its first postseason game before thousands of empty seats — some of which were literally too hot to sit in.

It was so hot the Dodgers set up pallets of bottled water near the gates and anyone brave enough to enter the stadium was given a plastic 16-ounce Dasini bottle. Gatorade also set up a cooling tent under the right-field pavilion.

Read more:'He's a competitor.' Tarik Skubal's dominant outing stakes Dodgers to NLDS Game 1 win

It was so hot Nicolas Gonzalez, a fan sitting in the shade of the reserved level, saw a stadium attendant, overcome by heat, stretchered before the game even started. She wasn’t the only one. By the later innings, other fans on the reserved level were reportedly seeking medical attention on the concourse.

The Dodgers declined comment.

So how hot was it?

The game started 45 minutes after the National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning, cautioning against “extremely dangerous heat conditions” as the temperature reached 100 degrees at first pitch. By the third inning, the temperature reading atop the left-field scoreboard peaked at 103 degrees, matching the highest first-pitch temperature at 64-year-old Dodger Stadium.

“I’ve been coming to games my whole life and this is easily the hottest game I’ve ever been to,” said Gonzalez, 38, of Culver City. “Having a game in these conditions feels like we’re flying too close to the sun, both literally and figuratively.”

Around him, fans tried to cool themselves by waving makeshift fans. It didn’t work.

But the weather didn’t just affect the way the game was watched. It affected the way it was played too. The cloudless skies made every pop-up an adventure and the warm, dense air reduced drag, allowing batted balls to travel farther. As a result, the teams combined for five homers, accounting for all eight runs.

“That’s probably one of the hottest games that we’ve ever had here. And so shout-out to the Dodger fans; they were amazing,” said Max Muncy, who hit one of those five homers.

“My feet were hot. Really hot.”

The Dodgers wound up with an early afternoon game in the middle of a historic heat wave because MLB and the TV networks — in this case Fox and TBS — set conditional start times for the four Division Series games before the teams and matchups were known. When the San Diego Padres eliminated the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card round, Saturday’s early NL game went to the Dodgers.

Left-hander Tarik Skubal, who gave up just a run on two hits in six innings to get the win in his Dodger postseason debut, said he didn’t really notice the heat until he came out of the game.

“I walked back into the dugout, and I asked — I forget who, I think it was [Blake] Snell — I was like, ‘has it been this hot all game?’ It’s amazing what your brain can do in certain circumstances and moments,” he said.

“I actually didn’t think it was horrible when I was pitching.”

But then Skubal pitched in much hotter conditions as a kid growing up in northern Arizona.

“I played a Little League game in 127 [degrees]. Lake Havasu,” he said. “[Saturday’s] up there with as hot a baseball game that you can play in.

“Every team’s playing in it, right? They’re playing in the same conditions we are. It shouldn’t really impact how you are mentally or how it’s going to impact how you pitch. Just go out there and play baseball and try to drink water. That’s really it.”

At least Skubal got to drink his water in the relative cool of the dugout between innings. Umpire Roberto Ortiz, wearing 10 pounds of protective gear and a black-and-gray uniform, got no such relief. He had to stand behind the plate for 2 hours, 44 minutes and all 290 pitches, one of which smoked him in the seventh inning.

Read more:Plaschke: Kyle Tucker becomes unlikely NLDS hero with Dodgers poised for series sweep

That’s why his five fellow umpires made a point of patting him on the back or shoulder before jogging to their positions for the first pitch.

“He stayed tough,” Dodger catcher Will Smith said of Ortiz. “I’m sure he’ll rehydrate and be ready for tomorrow.”

Speaking of tomorrow, the Dodgers, Braves and the umpires will all get some relief for Game 2. At first pitch Sunday afternoon the Weather Channel is forecasting a temperature of just 97 degrees.

“The dark silver lining,” Gonzalez, the heat-weary fan said in a nod to global warming, “is this might be the coolest October of the rest of our lives.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Austin Wells spared the Yankees the infamy of being no-hit in Game 1 of the ALDS. 

What he did next was almost worse and all but guaranteed that Saturday night still ended miserably for the Yankees. 

Wells recorded the Yankees’ first hit off Drew Rasmussen with two outs in the top of the eighth, but then was thrown out easily trying to stretch a double into a triple, delivering one more gut punch on the way to a 1-0 loss to the Rays and a 1-0 deficit in the best-of-five series in front of a rowdy sellout crowd of 40,542 at Tropicana Field. 

“We didn’t really have much going on there in the game, so every 90 feet matters,” Wells said in a quiet visiting clubhouse. “I was committed to being there and thought I had a good chance to get there. Can’t hang your head too much. They pitched incredible tonight and just trying to make something happen.” 

The Aaron Judge-less Yankees lineup that beat up on the Red Sox for 18 runs in the wild-card series went missing in the first game of the series against their other divisional rivals. Their bats might as well have, too, because they could hardly touch Rasmussen. When they did, the balls found gloves every time. 

With the Yankees four outs away from becoming the fourth team in postseason history to be no-hit, Wells got them off the schneid, ripping a line drive that landed on the right field line. He thought he saw the ball kick off the wall more than it did and was just over halfway to second base when third base coach Luis Rojas threw up a stop sign. But by the time Wells saw him after he passed second, “I was already committed,” he said. The slow-footed catcher was thrown out easily at third base on a relay from right fielder Victor Mesa Jr. to shortstop Taylor Walls to third baseman Junior Caminero. 

“Just obviously not a good decision there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But the biggest issue is just Rasmussen shutting us down. Obviously, a handful of guys hit some balls on the screws, Austin being one of them a couple times there. But we just didn’t generate enough, obviously.” 

Instead of Ryan McMahon, or possibly a pinch hitter, coming up with a man on second base — which would have been only their second at-bat all night with a runner in scoring position — the inning was over, and soon the game was, too. 

The play sent the packed house — unlike plenty of games here against the Yankees, the Rays fans actually drowned out the swaths of visiting fans — into a frenzy, as Rasmussen continued his dominance of the Yankees with a whale of a game: eight shutout innings, 10 strikeouts and two walks. 

“I feel like he was just not giving in,” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., who walked and stole second with two outs in the second inning but was stranded there when Trent Grisham struck out looking at a changeup, a pitch that fueled Rasmussen’s big night. “He didn’t miss his spots today, he was all over the corners, he didn’t leave much pitches middle.” 

Boone gave Giancarlo Stanton a chance for a dramatic moment in the top of the ninth, pinch hitting him for McMahon against righty closer Bryan Baker for his first at-bat since April 24. But Stanton struck out on five pitches, as Baker retired the side in order to finish the one-hit shutout. 

The Yankees will try to rebound in Game 2 on Monday, with Cam Schlittler on the mound, though their ace won’t matter much unless their bats wake up. 

Gerrit Cole gave them a chance to win in Game 1, allowing only a solo shot to Jonathan Aranda across five innings before Ryan Weathers, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick combined to keep it a one-run game the rest of the way. But other than a handful of hard-hit balls — two on deep flyouts by rookie George Lombard Jr. — the Yankees’ offense was nonexistent, save for Wells’ double that was instantly erased by his baserunning blunder. 

“That wins and loses games,” Wells said. “You have to take risks, but in that situation, obviously the risk was wrong.”