NEW YORK — The Tampa Bay Rays completed a stunning sweep of the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series on Wednesday night, ending the Bronx Bombers’ season and setting off chants of “Fire Aaron Boone!” around Yankee Stadium.
The Rays, who operate with one of baseball’s bottom-three payrolls, dominated the Yankees over three games — nearly no-hitting them in Game 1 and capitalizing on error after error in Game 2 — before closing out the series in the Bronx. The sweep came against a Yankees club with the third-highest payroll in the sport, one that had also lost the division race to Tampa.
For one moment in the sixth inning, it looked like Anthony Volpe might rescue the season. The homegrown shortstop, making his first start of the series after a year in which he spent more than a month demoted to the minors and hit just two home runs, came to the plate with two outs and the Yankees trailing by two — and drove a ball that died inches short of the seats, a fan’s reaching arms the difference between heartbreak and heroics, according to CNN.
Volpe had scored to tie the game in the fourth, briefly raising the hope that manager Aaron Boone’s pregame wish for a “spark” might come true. Instead, the final out sealed the Yankees’ October exit, and blame — as the chanting made clear — landed on Boone as well as a lineup that never produced.
The Rays advance in the American League bracket. In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers eliminated the San Diego Padres in Game 4 of their division series to set up an NLCS rematch with the Los Angeles Dodgers — who swept Milwaukee last October and are chasing a third straight World Series title.
The Brewers own baseball’s best record; the Dodgers own the last two trophies. Milwaukee now gets another shot at dethroning the defending champions and stopping the first National League three-peat.
