Rays 5, Yankees 2: A Four-Run Fifth and Four Errors Took Game 2

Contact, speed, chaos. Then Palacios found center.

October 5, 2026 - St. Petersburg - Cam Schlittler had already watched Jonathan Aranda single and Junior Caminero double 112.4 mph to right-center. Liam Hicks had already bounced a run home. Chandler Simpson had already reached on a play George Lombard Jr. did not finish. Brent Headrick was on the mound. Simpson stole second. Jonny DeLuca reached when Lombard's throw to first went wide. Richie Palacios ripped the eighth pitch into center. Two more runs. 5-1.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 5-2 in American League Division Series Game 2 and lead the series 2-0.

Dome. 72 degrees. First pitch 8:10 p.m. ET. Attendance 40,226. The game lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes. Bryan Baker told MLB.com that fifth inning was Rays baseball. Kevin Cash spent the rest of the night counting outs.

"That's a byproduct of having a really good clubhouse and a bunch of selfless teammates," Cash said, per ESPN. "They don't care who gets it done. They just want to get it done."

Three errors in the first. One run. It still counted.

Schlittler is the likely AL Cy Young winner. Monday he struck out two, his fewest of the year and tied for the fewest of his career, the MLB recap said. The first inning explained why.

Yandy Díaz reached on a fielding error by Ryan McMahon. Aranda singled. Caminero forced Aranda at second, Díaz scored, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. threw the ball away. 1-0. Austin Wells then interfered with Hicks. The Rays challenged. Catcher's interference. Simpson forced Hicks. Victor Mesa Jr. grounded out. Three errors in the first inning of a postseason game, ESPN said, the first time since the 1975 Athletics in the ALCS.

"There's a saying: 'Put the ball in play, and good things happen,'" Wells said, per MLB.com. "For them, it happens a lot."

Schlittler lasted 4 1/3: six hits, four runs, two earned, one walk, two strikeouts, 76 pitches. He is 1-1. He told MLB.com the Rays put pressure on you and find ways to get those runs across.

The second inning belonged to the building. Spencer Jones hit a fly that struck a Tropicana Field catwalk. Mesa caught it in center after it rattled down. DeLuca pointed up. Umpires confirmed the out under the ground rules, ESPN said. Jones kept running until they did.

Rice twice. The fifth still belonged to Tampa Bay.

Ben Rice homered in the fourth off a 2-2 changeup from Freddy Peralta, a fly to right, his third of the postseason. 1-1. New York's scoreless drought in the ALDS ended. Cody Bellinger singled. Luis García Jr. popped out. Jones forced Bellinger. Lombard popped out. The tie lasted one half-inning.

Peralta retired the first two in the fifth. Wells doubled. McMahon walked. Cam Booser replaced him and walked Rice to load the bases. Bellinger flew to the warning track in center. Inning over. Booser got the win for that one out. 1-0. Peralta's line: 4 2/3, three hits, one earned, one walk, three strikeouts, 66 pitches. He left a 1-1 game. He did not see the fifth from Tampa Bay's side.

Then the Rays did what Taylor Walls had described that afternoon: the same thing they had done all year. Aranda led off with a single. Caminero doubled. Hicks's slow roller scored Aranda with the infield in, except Chisholm was several feet deeper than the rest, ESPN said. His only play was at first. 2-1. Simpson's grounder to Lombard's left scored Caminero. Simpson raised a fist going to first. The scoring on that play went from hit to error to fielder's choice. 3-1. Schlittler was done.

Headrick struck out Mesa. Simpson stole second. DeLuca reached on Lombard's fourth error of the night. Palacios, second on the club with 31 two-out RBI in the regular season per the MLB recap, lined the two-run single. 5-1.

"He seems, as much as anybody in our lineup, to really rise to the occasion when we need him to come through," Cash said, per MLB.com.

"It was just one of those games things kind of compiled and stacked up on top of each other," Lombard said, per ESPN. "It wasn't ideal. We put ourselves in a bad spot."

Seymour for nine outs. Baker for three. Rice's second homer was not enough.

Ian Seymour threw three innings: one hit, one earned, no walks, four strikeouts, 41 pitches, a hold. The hit was Rice's second homer, a fly to right in the eighth, his fourth of the postseason. 5-2. Paul Goldschmidt had popped out in front of it. Bellinger popped out behind it. García struck out.

Bryan Baker threw a perfect ninth: Jones, Lombard, Chisholm, all groundouts, nine pitches, his second save in two games. John Schreiber, Ryan Weathers, Paul Blackburn, and David Bednar kept New York from giving any more runs back. They never got a third.

Rice finished 2-for-3 with two homers, two RBI, two runs, and a walk. He was the Yankees' entire offense. Tampa Bay had eight hits. New York had four. New York made four errors. Tampa Bay made none.

Simpson went 1-for-4 with a stolen base, a run, and an RBI. DeLuca went 1-for-4 with a double, a steal, and a run. Caminero went 2-for-4 with the double that started the fifth. Aranda went 2-for-5 and scored the go-ahead run. Palacios went 1-for-4 with two RBI.

2-0, and the series goes to the Bronx.

Game 3 is Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. ESPN listed Max Fried against Nick Martinez. Teams up 2-0 in best-of-five series have won 83 of 93, the MLB recap said. Clubs that took the first two at home in the current 2-2-1 format have won 33 of 36.

Aaron Boone told ESPN the Yankees have to play the first inning of Game 3. "We've responded all year. We need to do it again," he said. Cash called the 2-0 lead significant and said the challenge is still in the Bronx.

Aaron Judge remains out with a calf injury, ESPN noted. New York has scored two runs in two ALDS games. Rice supplied both on Monday. The Rays supplied five without needing a homer. Contact, speed, chaos. Baker was smiling when he named it.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Tampa Bay at 11 team fantasy points on a 5-2. Seymour had 13 pitching FP. Rice had 13 hitting FP in a loss. Baker had 8. New York sat at -2. Those numbers are the fifth inning and the errors: a win, five runs, two against, and a bullpen that finished after Schlittler left.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; ESPN recap; AthX Engine scoring applied to verified box stats. Information only; not financial advice.*