ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Sloppy defense put the New York Yankees on the brink of elimination.
\n\nFour errors and another defensive miscue led to three unearned runs that a lineup missing three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge couldn’t overcome in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 2 of their AL Division Series on Monday night.
\n\nThe Yankees are one loss from falling short of a 28th World Series title for the 17th straight season.
\n\nEven with likely AL Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler on the mound, the Yankees couldn’t even the best-of-five series against the pesky Rays.
\n\nThe small-ball Rays chased Schlittler in the fifth, aided by New York’s miscues in the field as the Yankees’ defense unraveled the same way it did in the team’s most recent World Series game two years ago against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
\n\nJonathan Aranda lined a single off Schlittler to start the bottom of the fifth and Junior Caminero ripped a double to right-center. With the infield drawn-in except second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was standing several feet further back on the dirt, Liam Hicks hit a slow bouncer to second that scored Aranda for a 2-1 lead.
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/