Austin Wells ends Rays no-hit bid before baffling baserunning gaffe

Austin Wells broke up Drew Rasmussen's no-hit bid in the eighth inning, seemingly putting the tying run in scoring position with Giancarlo Stanton as an option to pinch hit for Ryan McMahon.

Instead, Wells did not settle for an easy two-out double, and scampered to third before being thrown out by five feet. Suddenly, the inning was over, and the Yankees' best chance at pushing across a run was suffocated.

The Yanks went down in order in the ninth and dropped game one 1-0.

Luis Rojas appeared to be trying to hold up Wells at second, but Wells ignored the third base coach, despite not possessing great speed at all, and was gunned down by a Taylor Walls relay throw with plenty of time to spare. It was a bizarre baserunning blunder when the Yankees were starved for baserunners, and with two outs, even a baserunner with Wells' speed would have had a good chance to score from second base on a single.

"Obviously not a good decision there," Aaron Boone said after the game. "A mistake there, but biggest issue is just Rasmussen shutting us down."

The Yankees were four outs away from being no-hit by Rasmussen before Wells' double, as the Rays righty continues to own the Bombers for much of his career. Aside from an uncharacteristic clunker in July, Rasmussen has consistently shut down the Yanks, and Saturday night was no different. On the other side, Gerrit Cole grinded through five innings and allowed just one run, a home run to Jonathan Aranda. The bullpen held the fort the rest of the way, but the Yankee bats, after breaking out for nine runs in each of their two Wild Card Series wins against the Red Sox, were nonexistent in Tampa, mainly due to Rasmussen, who has now struck out 21 Yankees in his last two outings against them.

The loss puts the Yankees in nearly do-or-die mode on Monday for game two, and they have their best on the mound in Cam Schlittler, while the Rays will counter with Freddy Peralta.