NEW YORK — Victor Mesa Jr.'s go-ahead, two-run homer off Max Fried in the sixth inning, followed by a replay reversal that erased an apparent game-tying Yankees home run, carried the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-3 win over the New York Yankees on Wednesday night, completing a three-game sweep of their American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium.
Jonathan Aranda put Tampa Bay ahead with an RBI single in the third inning off Yankees starter Nick Martinez, before Ben Rice tied it with an RBI single in the bottom half, his eighth of the postseason. Ryan Vilade, a 27-year-old on his sixth major league organization, put the Rays back in front in the fourth with an opposite-field, 340-foot drive that just cleared the glove of a leaping Spencer Jones in right field. New York answered again in the fourth when Anthony Volpe, starting at second base for Jazz Chisholm Jr., beat out a 96.6-mph infield single and scored on a double by Jones.
The decisive sixth inning turned on baseball's newest officiating tool. With the Rays protecting a one-run deficit, George Lombard Jr. drew a walk after plate umpire Dan Bellino's called strike was overturned on an Automated Ball-Strike challenge; Austin Wells then walked when a strikeout call on a full-count changeup was reversed on a challenge from Rays catcher Liam Hicks. That brought up Mesa, who drove a pitch from Fried into the seats for a two-run homer and a 4-2 Tampa Bay lead.
A Reversal, and a Save, to Close It Out
New York nearly answered immediately. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Volpe appeared to hit a two-run homer off reliever Griffin Jax when a fan reached over the left-field wall and caught the ball ahead of a leaping Mesa. A video review determined the ball would not have cleared the fence and would not have been caught, and Volpe was awarded an RBI double rather than a home run, with Lombard scoring from first to make it 4-3. Jax struck out Jones to end the threat, and the Rays' bullpen closed it from there: Ian Seymour threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings, Kevin Kelly struck out pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to strand a runner in the eighth, and Bryan Baker worked the ninth for his third save of the series.
A Payroll Gap, and a Drought That Won't End
The sweep sends Tampa Bay to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2020. The Rays, who opened the season with the sport's 26th-highest payroll at roughly $91 million, swept the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series and earned the AL's top seed before dispatching a Yankees roster built on the league's third-highest payroll, about $303 million. They will host the winner of the Guardians-White Sox Division Series, which stood at two games to one for Chicago entering a possible Game 4 on Thursday, when the American League Championship Series opens Monday.
For the Yankees, the loss extends a championship drought that is now 17 straight seasons, equaling the gap between their 1978 and 1996 titles for the longest in franchise history. It is also New York's first sweep in a best-of-five postseason series since losing the 1980 ALCS to Kansas City. The Yankees trailed throughout the series, having lost Game 1 by a 1-0 score behind a near no-hitter and Game 2 by 5-2, and they never led at any point across the three games. Captain Aaron Judge, limited to seven games after May 31 by a fractured rib and a calf strain, missed the series entirely and will not play again this postseason. A preview published the night before Game 3 had already cast New York as the American League bracket's shakiest contender heading into the finale.
Tampa Bay, seeking its first World Series title, now turns its attention to an opponent that remains undecided. For the Yankees, the offseason begins with a now-familiar question about whether the sport's most expensive roster can be built to get past October's sharper-pitching, lower-payroll teams.
