Elle's Baseball Musings: Rasmussen Took the No-Hitter Into the Eighth
By Elle Elena ·
Drew Rasmussen threw eight innings of one-hit baseball at Tropicana Field on Saturday night, and the only run Jonathan Aranda needed was the one he hit himself. The Rays beat the Yankees 1-0 in American League Division Series Game 1 before 40,542. Tampa Bay leads the best-of-five series 1-0. Game 2 is Monday night under the same roof.
Rasmussen finished 8.0 innings, one hit, no runs, two walks, and 10 strikeouts on 101 pitches. Bryan Baker closed a perfect ninth for the save, striking out pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice before Cody Bellinger grounded out. The Yankees managed one hit all night: Austin Wells' two-out double in the eighth that Mesa Jr. and Taylor Walls turned into an out at third. That was the end of Rasmussen's night and the end of New York's only real threat.
The run came in the third. Aranda drove a Gerrit Cole pitch 417 feet to right-center (107.1 mph exit, 30-degree launch). I always glance at the scoreboard after a ball that sounds different off the bat, and that one needed no second look once the distance posted. Cole lasted five innings: five hits, one earned run, one walk, five strikeouts, 82 pitches. Yandy Díaz had singled in the first and Richie Palacios had doubled in the second, so the Trop already had traffic before Aranda's ball cleared. After that, Liam Hicks doubled and Victor Mesa Jr. singled, and none of it added another run. The bullpen (Ryan Weathers, Paul Blackburn, Brent Headrick) kept it at 1-0 the rest of the way. The margin never moved.
Aaron Judge was not on the Yankees' ALDS roster. The right calf strain from September 16 kept him off for a second straight round. Stanton made the club and took his first plate appearance since April 24, striking out against Baker in the ninth. New York's lineup ran Ben Rice at DH, Cody Bellinger in left, Luis García Jr. at first, Spencer Jones in right, George Lombard Jr. at short, Jazz Chisholm Jr. at second, Trent Grisham in center, Wells behind the plate, and Ryan McMahon at third. Jazz walked in the second and Rice walked in the third; both times Rasmussen answered. Without Judge, the Yankees still had to solve the AL's toughest regular-season WHIP, and on Saturday they did not.
Rasmussen's 2026 line (16-5, 2.67 ERA, 0.91 WHIP among qualified AL starters) already pointed at nights like this. Saturday was the postseason version: a no-hitter into the eighth, velocity on the board pitch after pitch, and a one-run lead that never cracked. Velocity boards are half the fun of watching a start like that; when the heater keeps showing up and hitters keep missing, you do not need a second screen to know the shape of the evening. Baker needed 14 pitches to finish it.
Friday's preview had Cole lined up for Game 1 against this same Rasmussen, with Judge's calf still sitting on a Saturday morning roster deadline. The deadline landed without Judge. Cole took the ball anyway, and Rasmussen took the night. New York had scored 18 runs in two Wild Card games without their captain; Saturday they scored zero against the pitcher who led qualified American League starters in WHIP all year.
Cam Schlittler starts Game 2 for New York. Freddy Peralta answers for Tampa Bay. The Rays have their first postseason win since 2021 and a 1-0 lead at home. The Yankees have one hit across nine innings and a series that now asks them to win two of the next four without their captain on the roster. That is the board after Saturday: Rasmussen's night, Aranda's ball, and a series that just got shorter for New York.
-Elle