Rays are destroying the Yankees the only way they know how: playing baseball

The Rays have beaten the Yankees twice this week without anything that looks like a blueprint. They won Game 1 by a run behind Drew Rasmussen, who carried a no-hitter into the eighth, and Game 2 5-2 behind four New York errors, three in the first inning, something no postseason team had done since the 1975 A's. One more win on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium finishes the sweep for the Rays.

What stands out is how the Rays have won all season long, and it's what Buster Olney wrote about this week: the bunt. Tampa Bay bunted 129 times this season, 40 more than the second-place Brewers, and its 84 bunts for hits were 30 more than the next-closest team. The part that stuck with me is that it was never a plan.

"We didn't come into the season saying, 'We're going to bunt a lot more this year,'" Kevin Cash said. "It just kind of evolved. It caught fire, and guys would come in and say, 'Hey, I can do that.'"

And Cash wasn't mandating it for everyone: "We don't ask Junior [Caminero] to bunt. Or Yandy [Diaz]. Or [Jonathan] Aranda. But we have some guys who can do it."

That's a manager and a clubhouse seeing what they have and letting it grow and evolve. Analytics are part of every front office, Tampa's included. This idea just came from the players and the eye test, not a 22-year old Ivy-leaguer's presentation.

Joe Maddon, who managed these Rays for nine seasons under Andrew Friedman, made the case from the other side on Foul Territory this week.

"Voices in the back of your head when you're in the dugout are awful," he said, and his bigger point was that "the game today would rather lose analytically than win based on feel." He's argued for years that front offices have gotten too involved in in-game decisions, and that experience and feel separate winning teams when the numbers don't tell the whole story.

How Aaron Boone's lineup decisions are costing the Yankees against the Rays

Now let’s look in the other dugout. Aaron Boone kept his Game 1 lineup intact for Game 2, most notably leaving Ryan McMahon at third base because he wanted "to prioritize the defense." McMahon finished the year at minus-3 defensive runs saved, 87th among 130 third basemen with at least 800 innings. And, on the second pitch of the game, he booted a Yandy Díaz chopper. Boone said he considered Anthony Volpe but didn't want Volpe's second career start at third to come in a playoff game, which I'm sure did not thrill Volpe, who I'd imagine was up for the challenge. But that comes with being the manager of the Yankees — every decision is second-guessed, and hindsight is always 20/20. 

Let’s also call a spade a spade — the Yankees are without Aaron Judge and only produced one hit in Game 1, the fewest in franchise postseason history. One may assume that the manager would change his lineup for Game 2. But Boone did not, and now seems to be going down this road too often regarding second-guessing and decision making, which starts sparking questions about analytics being the sole driver for decisions. After his Deivi García opener was second-guessed in the 2020 ALDS against these same Rays, Brian Cashman bristled at the idea that Boone was a "puppet" for the front office and analytics team, and Boone insisted his decisions were his own. 

I don't want to point fingers, and this is pure speculation, but it comes from what I saw in my playing days: on the teams that struggled, second-guessing leadership created a toxicity in the team's DNA. If any players agreed with fans and doubted the lineup, watching Boone run back the group that struggled the day before, then seeing an error two pitches into the game, could deflate a clubhouse (or in this case, morale on the field) fast, almost a "told you so" feeling that snowballs into more mistakes. Belief in the decisions and the decision-makers matters.

If he isn't a puppet, then the decisions need to look like his, and I'd hope Boone has the feel and baseball sense to mix things up on Wednesday, because down 0-2, what he's tried so far hasn't worked. The Rays play loose, trust what they see, and let something like a bunt grow into an identity. The Yankees look like they're trying not to deviate from the page. Facing elimination at home, they could use a little of the former.

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