One flawed base-running decision unraveled the New York Yankees Game 1 of the ALDS. Austin Wells broke Drew Rasmussen’s no-hit bid in the eighth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays. But he chose to ignore a basic rule: Do not make the third out at third base. He could have given the Yankees a fighting chance and taken the game to extra innings. Instead, he surprisingly stretched a double and ended the Yankees’ hopes of a late-inning revival. Following the 1-0 loss, fans on social media poured out their resentment online.
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Pitching for the Rays, Drew Rasmussen silenced the Yankees’ lineup through 7 scoreless, hitless innings until Austin Wells stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning. Trailing 1-0 with two outs in the eighth, Wells’ line drive down the right-field line recorded the Yankees’ first hit in the 2026 AL Division Series. But the Yankees’ catcher got overaggressive during the play. Wells tried to turn the double into a triple and continued running even after reaching second base. Wells’ decision gave the Rays ample time to tag him out at third base. Talkin’ Yanks posted the video of the play on X.
“Absolutely pathetic baseball,” wrote the X handle in caption.
Despite Rasmussen dominating the Yankees’ lineup, it was only a one-run game. Even in the late innings, the Yankees could have easily tied the game. Jonathan Aranda’s solo home run in the third inning was the only scoring play of the game.
Wells could have been the pinstripes’ postseason hero. Instead, his decision to ignore the stop sign from third-base coach Luis Rojas turned him into a villain to the fans.
Following Wells’ liner to the right-field, the Rays’ right fielder Victor Mesa Jr. threw perfectly to shortstop Taylor Walls, who in turn sent it to third baseman Junior Caminero. The Rays’ 3B easily tagged him out at third.
“After I was passing second base, I saw his hands up,” Wells said postgame, per USA Today. “But I was already committed.”
Wells botched the Yankees’ best chance at tying the score, especially with Giancarlo Stanton lined up to pinch-hit next. If Wells remained at second, he could have easily scored during the next at-bat. With two outs and a runner on second, Wells could have tied the score if Stanton hit a single. But he took the risk instead of playing it safe, and the Yankees paid for it. The Yankees are now 0-1 in the series, and they need to win three games to advance to the ALCS.
“Just obviously not a good decision there,” manager Aaron Boone told USA Today.
And fans fully agreed with Boone. They flooded social media, calling out Austin Wells for his blunder.
Austin Wells’ blunder sparks fan frustration
“The worst fundamental baseball program in MLB,” wrote one fan. Another frustrated Yankees fan commented, “Who the f— told him to keep running?”
Fans mostly called out Wells for his decision to not stop at second base. Wells could have given the Yankees a better shot at winning if he had stopped at second. Wells could have scored on a pinch-hit single from Giancarlo Stanton and tied the game.
One user remarked, “For some reason, he thought he was Chandler Simpson? Absolutely no reason to even think of third base in a game they had only one hit in!”
The Tampa Bay Rays’ outfielder Chandler Simpson is one of the fastest players in the league. According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Simpson took 11.37 seconds to reach third base from home during a game in May this season. It was one of his slower home-to-third times. Simpson’s average sprint speed ranges from 29.9 to 31.6 feet per second. Wells’ speed is nowhere near that. According to Statcast, Wells has a sprint speed of 26.0 feet per second this year.
One fan remembered the late John Sterling’s famous line from the 2024 ALCS. The fan commented, “John Sterling put it best, ‘Suzyn, they run the bases like drunks!'”
After officially retiring in April 2024, the legendary Yankees’ play-by-play announcer, Sterling, returned to call the Yankees’ postseason games. In Game 2 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Guardians, Sterling used the famous line to describe the base-running attempts by two Yankees runners, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Rizzo, in the sixth inning.
A user commented, “Mental errors in 2024 = losing the World Series.”
In Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, the Yankees held a 5-0 lead and then unraveled in the fifth with multiple mental mistakes. Aaron Judge dropped a fly ball, and Anthony Volpe picked a grounder and made a sloppy throw to third, which loaded the bases. In the same inning, Gerrit Cole forgot to cover first base when Mookie Betts hit a grounder, giving up a run on the infield single. That’s not all; Wells himself was charged with catcher’s interference in the eighth inning.
One fan also defended Austin Wells, saying, “’Pathetic’ for putting in the effort of getting an extra base?? You have to admire his risk it all mentality.”
After the Wild Card round fireworks against the Red Sox, the Yankees offense lost all firepower at Tropicana Field. They fell flat in front of Drew Rasmussen, apart from Austin Wells in the eighth. His line drive created the only scoring chance the Yankees had during the game.
The Yankees will play the Rays again on Monday.