Drew Rasmussen was so good Saturday night that he even exceeded the ridiculous playoff bar that Yankee arms have established for these playoffs. And it doubtless stings the Yanks that the Rays ace was able to silence their bats so thoroughly in Game 1 of the AL Division Series. 

But Gerrit Cole’s sharp stuff, another strong wave of pitching from the bullpen and the looming spectre of Cam Schlittler in Game 2 (and Game 5) are all evidence that this ALDS is far from over. Yes, even if the Yankees now have to win three times in four games with Rasmussen due for another start in this series.

“We got to get them tomorrow – well, Monday,” Cole told reporters at Tropicana Field afterward, looking ahead to Game 2. “It’s an opportunity to bounce back. We know they’re a tough opponent. Look, they’re going to land some blows and you’ve got to take blows in the postseason and dish them out, too.”

Cole delivered five solid innings, marred only by a terrific swing by the Rays’ No. 2 hitter, Jonathan Aranda. Aranda’s solo home run in the third inning was the game’s only run. Cole allowed five hits, struck out five and walked one and then Ryan Weathers (1.0 IP), Paul Blackburn (1.2 IP) and Brent Headrick (0.1 IP) combined for three scoreless frames of relief.

Rasmussen took a no-hitter into the eighth and got close enough to history that the game broadcast brought up Don Larsen and Roy Halladay. Cole wasn’t that electric. But he did put the Yankees in position to win.

“Gerrit’s had a really good year,” Aaron Boone said at the postgame podium. “I thought he threw the ball well. I thought they took some tough at-bats against him…Being a really tight game, it felt like it was leverage the whole game and he executed some really good pitches against some of their best hitters in the right spot.

“I thought he got us off to a good start. They made him work and then our bullpen picked it up from there. So I thought we did a really good job, obviously, on the mound, doing what we needed to do to give ourselves a chance to win.”

Yankee pitching has allowed three runs in 26 innings over three playoff games so far. That’s a 1.04 ERA. Opponents are batting .135 against Yankee pitchers, who have allowed only 12 hits.

Schlittler has certainly been the headliner and he will start Monday’s Game 2 at the Trop against Freddy Peralta, who Tampa Bay acquired from the Mets at the deadline. Schlittler overwhelmed the Red Sox for 6.1 shutout innings in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, a nifty follow-up to what was almost certainly a Cy Young regular season.

Should this series get to a deciding Game 5 in St. Petersburg, Fla., Schlittler would be on regular rest for the assignment.

“He’s been our guy all year,” catcher Austin Wells told reporters. “It was a great game, all around, for the pitchers (on Saturday). So I think we’re going to look forward to continuing that on our side and hopefully get to their guy.”

“It’s the playoffs,” Boone said. “Here we go. Every day’s important. Every win is an exhale and exciting, and the losses are gut punches. But you’ve got to just keep moving and know that you’re going to have some tough days, too.

“We’re obviously always thrilled when we hand the ball to Cam, and hopefully we can go out and put some points on the board to support him and come out of here with a split and head back home.”

We’ll see what Cole’s role will be the rest of the way. With Schlittler booked for two games, and Max Fried and Carlos Rodón pegged to start, in some order, Games 3 and 4, it’s probably in the bullpen or the next series, should the Yanks advance.

Aranda’s home run meant he suffered a hard-luck loss in Game 1. It came on a changeup that Cole wanted down and away. “It got to the edge, but it didn’t get down enough,” Cole told reporters at the Trop. “It’s a pretty steep price to pay. But he crushed it. That’s the way it goes.”

At the time, did Cole think one run could beat the Yanks? “No,” he replied.

As long as the Yanks keep holding opponents to one, this series should have some twists and turns coming. Even if Rasmussen has another start remaining. Even if the Rays have more quality arms beyond him.

“The reality is, if you want to go deep in the playoffs, you got to beat a great pitcher,” Boone said. “Hopefully, we get another crack at him and do better.”  

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — On a night perfection was required, mere quality was not enough for Gerrit Cole. 

The third of three Yankees aces, in his first start of this postseason, held down a strong Rays lineup and threw just one pitch he could regret in five innings. 

He was solid. He was not Drew Rasmussen. 

Cole allowed a home run to Jonathan Aranda that ended up being the difference in the game if not the story of the game. Against a Yankees lineup that had scored 18 runs over two wild-card contests against Boston, Rasmussen threw a one-hit shutout in a 1-0 Rays victory in Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday. 

Pitching on nine days of rest, Cole betrayed little rust, looked strong against the peskiest lineup in baseball and on most nights would have walked off the mound smiling. 

There was no grin because he blinked. 

With one out in the third inning, Cole aimed a 2-2 changeup down and away. It was away, on the edge of the strike zone. It was not down. 

“It’s a pretty steep price to pay,” Cole said after he allowed five hits and a walk with five strikeouts. “He crushed it. That’s just the way it goes.” 

Cole’s last batter of the game was the most entertaining at-bat of the night. Against Junior Caminero, the two stars battled for 11 pitches before Austin Wells ran to the mound to talk with Cole. After that breather, Cole turned to a 12th-pitch knuckle-curve that grazed the top of the zone to freeze one of the best hitters in baseball. 

One of the best pitchers of his generation walked off the mound believing he would return for the sixth. He did not. 

After 82 pitches, he talked with manager Aaron Boone, who had ridden Cam Schlittler and Max Fried longer in the wild-card series and pulled the plug early on Cole. 

“[Boone and I] left the conversation at the end on the same page,” Cole said, choosing his words carefully, of a move that would have gained more scrutiny if Ryan Weathers, Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick had not combined for three scoreless, hitless innings in relief. 

Boone said Cole “got us off to a good start” but said the Rays “made him work,” which is part of the identity of a team that rarely strikes out. 

As early as the beginning of the fourth inning, after Cole gave up a leadoff single to Victor Mesa Jr., Boone began warming up a reliever (Blackburn in that case, and Headrick began throwing as the fifth inning began). On a night Cole allowed just one run but seven balls struck at least 95 mph, Boone may have seen warning signs. 

Cole won many battles Saturday, but not with his manager behind closed doors and not with Rasmussen. 

“That was a lot of fun,” he acknowledged of the battle of aces. “He was unbelievable.”

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The opportunity for Giancarlo Stanton finally arrived.

His first at-bat in five-plus months just did not turn into a moment, but what Aaron Boone saw in it was one of the few things he liked in the Yankees’ 1-0 loss to the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday night at Tropicana Field.

With the Yankees trailing by a run in the top of the ninth, and Rays righty closer Bryan Baker entering from the bullpen, Boone sent Stanton up to pinch hit for the left-handed-hitting Ryan McMahon to lead off the frame.

Stanton, who last took an at-bat April 24 because of three separate calf strains, ended up striking out on five pitches. The veteran slugger fouled off the first pitch, took two balls and a strike, then foul-tipped a 96 mph fastball on the inner third into the catcher’s mitt for Strike 3.

“Baker’s obviously had a great year,” Boone said. “Really tough, really reverse [splits] guy. So not that I was going to hit for a lot of my lefties there, but felt the threat of Giancarlo — I thought he had a really good at-bat. I thought he was on all [five] pitches. I thought he was seeing the changeup well. I thought he got a good swing off right out of the bat.

“I liked what I saw. He took the right at-bat. He just didn’t clip it. So yeah, I’m going to take my shot with a hitter there and got [José Caballero] to run for him and we’ll take our shot right there.”

Stanton had been 5-for-7 with one strikeout in his career against Baker, with the potential to tie the game on one swing, though it did not come to fruition.

Ryan Weathers also made his first appearance since Aug. 22, relieving Gerrit Cole in the sixth inning and getting three groundouts to first base against three left-handed hitters.

“I felt super healthy,” Weathers said. “Felt good. Stuff was coming out really good.”

The lefty, who spent the last month-plus rehabbing a left forearm flexor strain, indicated he should be available for Monday’s Game 2, especially because he only needed nine pitches to retire the side Saturday.

The Yankees left Weathers off their roster for the wild-card series to give him more time to build up, hoping it would allow him to be available more often in the ALDS.

The other lefties in the Yankees bullpen are heavily used setup man Brent Headrick and the soft-tossing Ryan Yarbrough. Headrick lost some velocity late in the season, looking like he might be running out of gas, while Yarbrough is mostly on the roster to offer some length if the Yankees get into a tough spot.

To add Weathers, the Yankees took veteran utility player Amed Rosario off their roster to go with 11 pitchers and 15 position players.

The righty-hitting Rosario was on the wild-card roster against the Red Sox, but the Rays have fewer left-handed pitchers and the Yankees already have Paul Goldschmidt, Heliot Ramos and Stanton as right-handed pinch hitting options. Because Anthony Volpe is more of a threat on the bases and offers better defense at second base (and potentially third), Rosario became what Boone described as the “odd man out.”

“Tough call, because of how important he’s been to our team,” Boone said. “But he understands, too, and he’ll be the same Rosie he always is as far as what he means to the team and in that room.”

Following the Yankees' 1-0 loss to the Rays in Game 1 of the ALDS, manager Aaron Boone and the players spoke on the game...

What made Rasmussen unhittable?

Rays ace Drew Rasmussen had the start of a lifetime.

He pitched 7.2 no-hit innings against the Yankees before Austin Wells' double in the eighth broke it up, but the right-hander completely dominated New York, tossing eight shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks while striking out 10 batters.

Rasmussen broke several franchise postseason records in the process, and the Yankees could only tip their cap after the game.

"I thought he was really sharp. I thought his change-up was good for him and in play," Boone said. "Obviously, with our left-handed hitters, it looked like he had the cutter going when he needed to. Then the good four-seamer where he mixed in some sinkers off of it. His command is just really good and kind of what sets him apart. He's got a great arsenal. The ability to pitch on both sides of the plate and up and down obviously makes him challenging and one we've had a hard time solving."

"He just hit all his spots today. He was on," Jazz Chisholm Jr., who had one of the Yankees' two walks, said. "He wasn’t leaving anything [over the plate]. He wasn’t giving in. He wasn’t leaving it middle 3-2, he wasn’t scared to walk guys and get the next guy." 

"You just have to give him credit. All night, the pitches had really good effects," Luis Garcia Jr. said through an interpreter. "All eight innings, it felt like he never missed a pitch, location-wise and execution-wise. Sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposing pitcher." 

This isn't the first time Rasmussen dominated the Yankees. Back on Sept. 22 in the Bronx, Rasmussen allowed one run on one hit across 6.2 innings while striking out 11 batters. Aside from one start where New York picked up six runs in 2.1 innings off of him, Rasmussen's previous two starts this season against the Yankees saw the right-hander toss 13 shutout innings. 

"I feel like he's got a lot of different ways to beat you. Starts with great command," Boone said of Rasmussen's dominance. "And when he has a presence on both sides of the plate and up and down, and you have to respect the four-seam on him, he was able to freeze us a lot on different sides of the plate, as well. His mix was really strong. I thought he kind of used everything against us, and he cut us up again."

"When a guy's executing like that, the plan is to keep battling," Garcia said of Rasmussen taking a no-hitter into the eighth. "Maybe getting into long counts, long at-bats, but he kept executing pitches and attacking the zone. We tried to have long at-bats, but he was pretty sharp tonight."

With a best-of-five series, the Yankees will likely face Rasmussen one more time. But Boone isn't concerned with that, and is confident in his team to figure out the Rays' ace.  

"I think we're due the next time," he said. "We've done it before, and I know our guys are very confident. So the reality is, you know, you want to go deep in the playoffs, you've got to beat probably a great pitcher at some point. So we've got to find a way. Hopefully, we're in a position to get another crack at him and execute a little better."

Austin Wells, who got the Yankees' lone hit, acknowledged Rasmussen's past dominance against the team, but likes his team's chances.

"He’s pitched really well against us in his career," Wells said. "Every guy in this lineup likes our chances. He pitched incredible. Made pitches when he needed to. Got outs. Hard contacts, weak contacts, they are all outs. Hopefully, we’ll go out there and face him again in this series. You have to have as much confidence as possible. It was a 1-0 game. It was hard-fought."

Taking a shot with Stanton

Giancarlo Stanton has not swung a bat in a major league game since April. 

But in Game 1 of the ALDS, Boone saw an opportunity to utilize his slugger off the bench. That's why he was on the ALDS roster, after all. 

Down 1-0 in the ninth, Stanton pinch-hit for Ryan McMahon and took on Rays closer Bryan Baker. Stanton worked the count to 2-2 before the right-handed Baker threw a 96.3 mph fastball inside on Stanton for a foul-tip strikeout.

Stanton, despite being on the Wild Card Series roster, did not get an at-bat, in the two games. After the game, Boone was asked why he used Stanton in that moment.

"Just Baker's obviously had a great year. Really tough, really reverse guy," Boone explained. "So not that I was going to hit for a lot of my lefties there, but felt the threat of Giancarlo -- I thought he had a really good at-bat. I thought he was on all four pitches. I thought he was seeing the change-up well. I thought got a good swing off right out of the bat. I liked what I saw, like he was -- he took the right at-bat. He just didn't clip it. So, yeah, I mean, I'm going to take my shot with a hitter there and got [Jose Caballero] to run for him and we'll take our shot right there."

Stanton slashed .256/.302/.422 with an OPS of .724 to go along with three home runs across 24 regular season games this year before he went down with a calf strain.

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.