The facts
Saturday night at Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 1-0 in Game 1 of the best-of-five American League Division Series. The game's only run came on Jonathan Aranda's 417-foot homer in the third, in front of a sellout crowd of 40,542.
Rasmussen heard it through the bathroom door. "Unfortunately, I was in the bathroom," the Rays starter said. "It would have been a really cool time to be in the dugout. But, no, I had to take care of my own business."
He then held the Yankees hitless for 7⅔ innings, striking out 10, which tied a franchise record for the most in a postseason game. His bid tied Washington's Anibal Sanchez in 2019 for the longest individual no-hit bid since Roy Halladay no-hit Cincinnati in 2010. The Yankees' only hit came with two outs in the eighth, when Austin Wells doubled down the right-field line, then ran through his third base coach's stop sign and was thrown out at third. Bryan Baker closed out the 1-0 win.
Rasmussen said he told pitching coach Kyle Snyder he was throwing at about 50% effort because anything above it was a "major misfire" and let catcher Liam Hicks call the game. "My heart rate was at a thousand beats per minute," he said. Manager Kevin Cash, asked about his starter, replied: "What wasn't elite?"
This was no fluke. On Sept. 22 at Yankee Stadium, Rasmussen struck out 11 on a career-high 114 pitches and did not allow a hit until the seventh inning of a 6-1 win that clinched the AL East for Tampa Bay. He entered Saturday 5-2 with a 1.81 ERA in 11 career games against the Yankees. He has done it after two Tommy John surgeries in college at Oregon State and an internal brace procedure on his right elbow in July 2023, returning as a reliever in August 2024. His season: career bests of 16 wins, 174 strikeouts, 172 innings and a 0.91 WHIP that led the American League. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of facing him: "I thought he was really sharp."
Our take
Let us savor the details, because the details are doing all the work here. Drew Rasmussen, the Tampa Bay ace, was in the bathroom when his team scored the only run of the game. He heard Jonathan Aranda's 417-foot bomb through the bathroom door. He came back out, told his pitching coach he was operating at about half effort because anything more was a major misfire, handed the game plan to his catcher, and then nearly threw a postseason no-hitter against the New York Yankees. At half effort. With his catcher calling the pitches. Heart pounding at a thousand beats a minute.
And the Yankees' answer to this humiliation was to produce exactly one hit all night, and then have Austin Wells personally sprint that hit into an out. Wells finally solved Rasmussen with a double down the line in the eighth, the single crack in the armor, and his first instinct was to run through his third base coach's stop sign like a teenager blowing a red light, getting thrown out at third. The Yankees' lone offensive achievement of the evening lasted about as long as a sneeze and ended with their catcher jogging back to the dugout.
Rasmussen has now nearly no-hit the same lineup twice in eleven days. He owns a 1.81 ERA against them across eleven career games. Aaron Boone's official assessment is that the Yankees have had "a hard time solving" him, which is the most polite way any man has ever said this guy beats the shit out of us every time. Kevin Cash was asked what was elite about his starter's night and answered: "What wasn't elite?" Exactly. The only thing that wasn't elite Saturday night was the team in pinstripes.
