The Tampa Bay Rays took a 1–0 series lead over the New York Yankees in the ALDS on Saturday with a nail-biting 1–0 win in front of the home crowd.
Leading the way for the Rays was pitcher Drew Rasmussen, who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before finally conceding a shot off the bat to Yankees catcher Austin Wells.
Wells’s hit could have been the game-changing moment for the Yankees. After barely seeing any base-runners all game, Wells’s hit to right field had him positioned to be standing on second base in scoring position with a chance to tie the game, suddenly flipping a ton of pressure on to Rasmussen, who had just touched 100 pitches on the night.
Instead, Wells’s hit did nothing for the Yankees, because he didn’t even finish the play on base. Rather than stopping at second for a stand-up double, Wells attempted to stretch his hit to third base and was out by an embarrassing margin.
Absolutely pathetic baseball https://t.co/ra6D029qd3
— Talkin’ Yanks (@TalkinYanks) October 4, 2026
There was really no excuse for Wells to try for third. First and foremost, Wells is not a guy who has the speed to hit triples. But strictly from a game perspective, there were already two outs in the inning, meaning if he stopped at second he’d be running on contact on any subsequent hit from the Yankees and have a good shot at making it home. Further, there was no chance that a sacrifice fly or hard infield out could bring him home.
“You have to take risks,” Wells said after the game. “But in that situation, obviously the risk was wrong. I can’t tell you if I’d go again, because the situation would be different, but obviously I took the risk, didn’t work out. But I think I needed to try to make something happen there.”
“You have to take risks. In that situation, obviously the risk was wrong. I took the risk, didn’t work out.”
– Austin Wells https://t.co/Jrosy78jDd
— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) October 4, 2026
At the TNT Sports desk after the game, former Phillies shortstop and noted hitter of triples Jimmy Rollins ripped into Wells for the mental error.
“You have to understand, I am here to hit doubles. Austin, you’re here to hit doubles, you’re here to hit home runs, not triples,” Rollins said. “Unless the ball absolutely gets stuck in the corner, that right fielder now has to run an extra 10 feet to pick it up. They’re not even thinking about trying to throw you out at third. In that situation, the ball tells you when to stop. The ball should have stopped him. The ball came off the fence, came back out into play relatively quick. As Pedro said, you hit it hard, you have no chance. I just can’t reiterate the fact [enough] that there was no chance on any planet that he was going to be safe at third.”
Austin Wells had no chance of being safe at third says @JimmyRollins11 😳 https://t.co/FHrPzIgkcn
— TNT Sports U.S. (@TNTSportsUS) October 4, 2026
Rollins was far from the only one to lay into Wells for the decision. Jimmy O’Brien, better known as Jomboy, posted a video from his channel’s live stream of the game as he and his coworkers were left stunned by the overly optimistic run.
Impossible to justify going for third in that situation https://t.co/7zvh2pXftM
— Jimmy O’Brien (@Jomboy_) October 4, 2026
The Yankees will now need to win three of the next four games with the Rays in order to keep their postseason run alive. Game 2 of the series is set for Monday at 8 p.m. ET.
About Tyler Lauletta
Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.