The New York Yankees matched a record nobody wants on Monday: three errors in the first inning of a postseason game, tying what the Oakland A’s did in Game 1 of the 1975 ALCS against Boston. It happened in Game 2 of the 2026 ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, with New York already down 1-0 in the series.
Ryan McMahon, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Austin Wells each committed an error against Tampa Bay’s first four batters, gifted the Rays a run before a hit was even needed, and buried Cam Schlittler — the American League’s Cy Young frontrunner — in a hole he never climbed out of.
What Happened, Play by Play
The first inning didn’t last long before it fell apart. Yandy Díaz led off with a grounder that McMahon couldn’t handle at third: error one. Chisholm took the flip from George Lombard Jr. to retire the lead runner at second, then tried to complete the double play on Junior Caminero but threw wide of first base off-balance. Díaz, who had already reached second on McMahon’s miscue, scored easily: error two, first run. Austin Wells capped the inning with a catcher’s interference call: error three.
Three errors. Three different players. Four batters faced. The Rays took the lead without recording a single hit.
Schlittler, the team’s most dominant starter in 2026, was forced to burn extra pitches from the jump and was pulled in the fifth inning with the Yankees trailing 5-1. By the final out, New York had accumulated four errors in the game — the most in a postseason contest since Game 4 of the 2019 ALCS.
The Context the Outrage Is Missing: Chisholm Wasn’t Alone
Social media went after Chisholm hard, but the narrative that he’s the reason the Yankees are in trouble flattens what actually happened. His error was the second of three in the same inning, sandwiched between miscues by McMahon and Wells. Blaming Chisholm alone means ignoring that the collapse was entirely collective.
Beyond one bad throw, Chisholm’s résumé doesn’t belong in the trash. He’s a two-time All-Star (2022 and 2025) and a 2025 Silver Slugger winner. In Game 1 of this very series, he handled six defensive chances cleanly and stole his third base of the postseason. One error in Game 2 doesn’t erase any of that.
What is fair to note is that his 2026 regular season wasn’t his best. His Statcast profile tells a fuller story than any single inning can.
Chisholm’s 2026 Numbers by the Data
- Plate appearances: 532
- Home runs: 19 | RBI: 55
- AVG: .231 | OPS: .711
- xwOBA: .294 (expected production based on contact quality)
- Average exit velocity: 90.4 mph
- Barrel rate: 8.2%
- Hard-hit rate: 42.8% (balls hit 95+ mph)
- Average bat speed: 72.9 mph
- Whiff percentile: 13th (among the highest swing-and-miss rates in MLB)
- Sprint speed percentile: 75th
Series Context: Tampa Bay Already Won a Game With a Near No-Hitter
Game 2 didn’t arrive in a vacuum. On October 3rd, Drew Rasmussen held the Yankees hitless through eight innings, struck out ten, and retired 15 consecutive batters in a 1-0 Tampa Bay win in front of 40,542 fans at Tropicana Field. It was the longest no-hit bid in Rays postseason history and the deepest into a playoff game that New York had been held without a hit in the Modern Era. The Yankees’ only hit was a double by Austin Wells — who was then thrown out at third trying to stretch it.
With Game 2 turning into another disaster, the Yankees are staring at a serious deficit in this best-of-five series. Tampa Bay finished the regular season 98-64, the best record in the AL East. New York went 93-68. The gap between these two teams showed up on the Tropicana Field turf before the first inning of Game 2 was even over.
