1. I wasn’t angry when Trent Grisham struck out to end the season. I wasn’t upset, disappointed or sad. I wasn’t anything. It was a result I expected when the Yankees made it clear they would “run it back” in 2026 with the same 2025 roster that wasn’t good enough to win the division or survive the ALDS, and for the second straight year, the team wasn’t good enough to win the division or survive the ALDS. It was a predictable and inevitable result. The expected outcome unfolded, and when an expected outcome comes to fruition, there is no excitement or disappointment. There’s nothing. The 2026 Yankees made their fans feel nothing.
2. You have to be emotionally unstable to think Grisham was going to drive in Jazz Chisholm and tie Game 3 in the ninth inning and save the Yankees’ season. You have to be a fool to think that the Yankees were going to come back and win three straight against the Rays, and you have to be an idiot to think the 2026 season was going to end any differently than it did. Like Derek Zoolander with his “Blue Steel” and “Ferrari” looks, the 2025 Yankees and the 2026 Yankees were the same team and they provided the same result.
3. Grisham striking out in the leadoff spot in the order to end the Yankees’ season was poetic. I spent months writing about Grisham being the worst leadoff hitter in the league, but there he was with the Yankees on the brink of elimination back atop the order instead of Ben Rice, who may have had one of the great postseasons performances of all time if the Yankees’ postseason didn’t last only five games. There Grisham was batting with the season on the line, while Rice looked on from the on-deck circle. And there he was striking out for the third time in the game as the Rays became the fifth different team in the nine years of the Aaron Boone era to eliminate the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. How can you not be romantic about baseball?
4. The offense did the bare minimum in Game 3, even though the bare minimum represented their highest single-game run total in the series with three. The Yankees scored five runs in three games, a result they spent all summer foreshadowing that most fans pushed aside because of their destruction of the Red Sox. Outside of Rice, a couple of at-bats from Austin Wells and Anthony Volpe and a bunch of George Lombard Jr. singles, the offense was a disgrace. I look forward to the Yankees destroying No. 4 and No. 5 starters and fringe major-league relievers all season next season and then disappearing in the postseason again. The Yankees being unable to hit postseason pitching is as much a part of fall as pumpkin spice.
5. Max Fried did what he has mostly done in the postseason: lose. Fried wasn’t as bad in this ALDS start as he was in his last year’s, but four earned runs, nine baserunners and two home runs in 5 2/3 innings isn’t nearly good enough. Allowing a home run to Ryan Vilade (who is with his fifth organization in six years) and a left-on-left home run to Victor Mesa (who was designated for assignment by the Marlins in February), isn’t good enough. I look forward to Fried dominating the league during the regular season next year and then pooping his pants in the postseason again.
6. The Yankees never led in the series. Not for an inning, not for a batter, not for a pitch. Their Big 3 of Gerrit Cole, Cam Schlittler and Fried all took losses in their respective starts. Their supposed deep bench was barely utilized, and when it was, it wasn’t utilized properly. They were outplayed in the batter’s box, on the mound, in the field, in the dugout and in the front office.
7. The Yankees had never been swept in their previous 24 ALDS appearances, but there’s nothing the Boone Yankees love more than making negative franchise history. They became the first Yankees team to get swept in the division series four days after they became the first Yankees team to get no-hit through six innings of a postseason game (as they were no-hit for 7 2/3 innings). The Rays celebrated beating the Yankees for the division title at Yankee Stadium and then 15 days later celebrated beating them in the division series at Yankee Stadium.
8. The loss continues the trend of the Boone Yankees having never won a real postseason series of five games or seven games after losing the first game of the series. They are now 0-5 in such series and are 3-17 in games in those series. Their record against the AL Central in the postseason is 15-4 and their record against non-AL Central teams in the postseason is 11-26. They have never won a series of five or seven games against a team not from the AL Central.
9. The Rays are the fifth different team in the nine years of the Boone era to celebrate eliminating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Everyone celebrates in the postseason at Yankee Stadium, just not the Yankees. The Yankees are an ALDS loss to the Orioles away from AL East ALDS Loss Yahtzee under Boone. Maybe they can complete the feat in their next season.
10. And make no mistake, Boone will be the manager of the Yankees in their next season. There is only one person in the world who still believes Boone should continue as manager and that person happens to be the one who decides who the manager is. There will be a 10th season to the Boone era and when that season ends the same way the other nine have and his contract expires, only then can the idea of Boone being replaced be seriously discussed. If you want to continue to be a Yankees fan, you have to sign up for one more year of Boone.
Last modified: Oct 9, 2026
