Drake Rasmussen homered for the Yankees in Game 1 of the ALDS

Basically picked for the AL East ahead of the 2026 season, the New York Yankees spent the last four months of the season watching the Tampa Bay Rays in the stands. If the Bombers were hoping to avenge their second place finish in the division series with their AL East foe, they got off to a poor start on Saturday evening, losing 1-0 in a game that felt more lopsided than the one margin suggested. Caught in a no-hitter in the eighth inning, Drew Rasmussen dominated the Yankees as he made history with only two of Austin Wells’ two outs as the New York catcher tried unsuccessfully to turn into a triple. Bryan Baker quickly sent the Yankees off in the ninth to give the Rays a 1-0 series lead at the final score.

There wasn’t much in the way of Rasmussen’s offense being the biggest play in the game. Unhappy with the New York lineup, which consisted almost entirely of leftovers—it’s no surprise that Rasmussen has shown no platoon differential in his major league career—he mixed freely with four pitches, with the Yankees having no answer for anyone. Rasmussen struck out 10 batters over eight innings, and still cruxed enough that, had the Rays’ cushion been bigger, he would have been fired at best to end the game in the ninth.

When the playoffs begin to go, Rasmussen’s stands out not only as a terrible war at the beginning, but the one that was quite right with the best in recent history. James’ Game Score book is useful for this type of thing, and Rasmussen’s Game Score of 88 is tied for the 15th best start in the Wild Card playoff era (1995-present). Among the games of the last decade, only Blake Snell’s 2025 NLCS Game 1 starts rank higher. Snell’s final performance line was nearly identical to Rasmussen’s (8 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 10 K, but no walks).