Yankees' division dreams fading after series loss to Diamondbacks, another Rays win: 'It's gonna be tough'

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Sep 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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PHOENIX — The New York Yankees continued to fall behind in the American League East on Sunday, dropping their second straight game to the Arizona Diamondbacks to cement a series loss at Chase Field.

Coinciding with the 8-4 defeat was yet another Tampa Bay Rays win over the Boston Red Sox. With that, the Yankees, who lost in walk-off fashion on Saturday, are now six games back of Tampa Bay with just seven games left in the regular season.

“We gotta win ballgames,” Will Warren said after allowing four earned runs over 4 1/3 innings on Sunday. “I feel like we let the last two slip away, which is tough to do right now.”

The Yankees and Rays will play four of their remaining games against each other at Yankee Stadium this coming week, starting with a doubleheader on Tuesday. Aaron Boone acknowledged that his club will probably have to sweep Tampa just for a crack at the division title.

Even if that happens, winning the East is a “tall task,” the manager said.

Prior to Sunday’s loss, delivered after Nolan Arenado drilled a fifth-inning grand slam off Brent Headrick, FanGraphs gave the pinstripers a measly 2.7% chance of winning the division.

Making matters tougher is that the Rays, owners of the AL’s best record, currently lead the season series between the two teams, 6-3. There’s also the fact that the Yankees will be without Aaron Judge, who returned to the injured list with a calf strain on Saturday.

“They’re playing tremendous baseball, so it’s tough to climb up in the standings when they keep winning,” Cody Bellinger said of Tampa on Saturday. “So mathematically, it’s pretty tough, but gotta keep on rolling.”

“We gotta go on a good run. It’s gonna be tough,” added Cam Schlittler, who allowed one earned run over six innings but committed a costly error in Saturday’s loss. “I think we’ve had opportunities all season to put ourselves ahead, and we haven’t done a great job with it. So there’s still a chance, but we gotta play our asses off a little bit.”

The good news for the Yankees is that their best starters are lined up to face the Rays. Carlos Rodón and Max Fried will pitch the doubleheader before Gerrit Cole and Schlittler, the Cy Young frontrunner, close out the four-game set.

The Rays, however, are set to throw a few of their best with Nick Martinez, Drew Rasmussen, Ian Seymour and Freddy Peralta slotted for the highly-anticipated matchup.

“They have some good pitching as well, so that’s why they’re on the top of the American League,” said ex-Ray José Caballero. “But at the end of the day, it’s about what we do in the postseason. The first 162 games, it doesn’t matter. The clock starts with the postseason.”

While they’re not officially out of the division race yet, the likeliest scenario is that the Yankees end up hosting Boston in the wild-card round for the second straight year. It is not where the team wants to end up after finishing 2025 with the same record as the pennant-winning Toronto Blue Jays but losing the season series tiebreaker, but Bellinger remained confident that the Yankees can still secure their first title since 2009.

“Obviously, the goal is to win the division, rest your guys, get those extra off days,” he said. “That’s always goal No. 1. Ultimately, World Series champions have come out of the wild card.”

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