ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, you now have company. 

The stakes were not quite as high Monday, but the Yankees turned in an even bigger defensive abomination to put themselves in a 2-0 hole in the ALDS. 

Three errors in the first inning somehow did not kill them, but it did set the tone for the night before another error in the fifth helped provide the dagger, sinking the Yankees in an embarrassing 5-2 loss to the Rays in Game 2 of the ALDS witnessed by a raucous sellout crowd of 40,226 at Tropicana Field. 

“Obviously, tonight was just not good enough for us and certainly not good enough to beat that club,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to get over it, and playing for our lives [Wednesday] night.” 

The Yankees flew home licking their wounds with their season on life support, needing to clean up their act behind Max Fried in Game 3 and Carlos Rodón if they can get to Game 4 to have any chance of returning to Tropicana Field. Of course, they will also have to find a way to score runs, which they have only done twice in 18 innings of this best-of-five series — on a pair of solo shots from Ben Rice on Monday after suffering a one-hit shutout in Game 1. 

In a recurring theme of too many postseasons past, the Yankees melted from the Rays’ ability to put the ball in play and wreak havoc, even with Cam Schlittler on the mound, resulting in four errors — one shy of their franchise record for a single postseason game. 

“It didn’t seem like we really showed up today,” Schlittler said. “That’s what happens.” 

After Schlittler had been dominant against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the wild-card series, racking up a career-high 24 whiffs and 10 strikeouts across 6 ¹/₃ shutout innings, he generated just seven whiffs and tied a career low with two strikeouts across 4 ¹/₃ innings. He gave up four runs, only two of which were earned, but the damage was done nonetheless. 

Of course, Schlittler was the reason the Yankees survived a three-error bottom of the first — a new franchise record for the most in one inning of a playoff game — before Rice homered off Freddy Peralta in the fourth inning to give the Yankees their first signs of offensive life in the series. But after they left the bases loaded in the top of the fifth — Cody Bellinger’s fly ball to center landed a few feet short of a grand slam — they lost the game in the bottom of the frame. 

The Rays put runners on second and third for Liam Hicks, with the Yankees playing in on the turf except for Jazz Chisholm Jr., who said he was told to be a few steps onto the dirt at second base because Hicks typically pulls the ball hard that way. Instead, the catcher hit a weak tapper to Chisholm, who looked at home before taking the out at first as the Rays went up 2-1. 

The infield was in again when the speedy Chandler Simpson hit a chopper to shortstop, where George Lombard Jr. tried to backhand it and come home, except the ball got past him, allowing another run to score. 

“Against a good team like that, you can’t afford to make as many mistakes as we did,” Lombard said. 

That led Boone to pull Schlittler, who looked stunned, for Brent Headrick, who got a strikeout before generating a ground ball to shortstop that Lombard fielded and fired slightly off-target to first, where Luis García Jr. dropped it, putting runners on the corners. 

Brooklyn’s Richie Palacios came up next and delivered the big swing, a two-run single to center field that put the Rays ahead 5-1. 

“I feel like we beat ourselves today, in a lot of ways,” Chisholm said. 

The Yankees played a bottom of the first that was just about disastrous as it could possibly be, except by some miracle, Schlittler made sure it only resulted in a 1-0 deficit. 

It began with third baseman Ryan McMahon — in the lineup because Boone said he wanted to “prioritize the defense” — whiffing on Yandy Díaz’s chopper to lead off the frame. Then with runners on first and second, Junior Caminero hit a grounder up the middle that Lombard ranged to and flipped to second base for the out. But Chisholm tried an off-balance, ill-advised throw to first for the double play, which instead bounced past the bag, allowing Díaz to score for the 1-0 lead. 

“Honestly, I’d probably still throw it [if I could do it again], in the play that was trying to be made,” Chisholm said. “I feel like I could have tried to make an even better throw. I’d try to throw it a little closer to the base. My back was turned, so.” 

The third error was a catcher’s interference by Austin Wells, wiping out a strikeout, and Chisholm also had a high throw to second base that Lombard saved him on but wiped out a potential inning-ending double play. 

“These guys worked their asses off all year to get to a position like today.” Schlittler said. “We expect a lot out of each other. It’s been great all year, but we just didn’t play our brand of baseball.”