Rays Sweep Yankees Out of ALDS With 4-3 Game 3 Win, Reach First ALCS Since 2020

The Tampa Bay Rays are going back to the American League Championship Series — and they got there by ending the Yankees' season on the Yankees' own field. Rookie Victor Mesa Jr. crushed a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth inning on Wednesday night, lifting Tampa Bay to a 4-3 victory over New York and completing a three-game sweep of their AL Division Series. It was Mesa's first career postseason home run, and it came off Max Fried, the Yankees' ace, who watched a first-pitch sweeper sail 401 feet into the right-center bleachers and dropped his head as it cleared the wall. The Yankees' last real chance died on one of the strangest plays of the postseason. Anthony Volpe appeared to tie the game with a two-run homer later in the sixth, but a fan reached over the left-field fence and the ball struck the spectator's hand. After a crew-chief review, the homer was overturned and Volpe was placed on second with an RBI double. Closer Bryan Baker then struck out Trent Grisham with the tying run on second to end it — his third save of the series. New York never led at any point in the series and scored just five runs across the three games. The Yankees were swept out of a division series for the first time in franchise history, and for the 17th straight year they will not win a World Series. Aaron Judge could only watch from the dugout, still sidelined by the calf strain that kept him out of the postseason. The Rays, who also clinched the AL East title at Yankee Stadium in September, will host either the White Sox or the Guardians in a best-of-seven ALCS starting Monday.