MLB Playoff Winners and Losers: Yankees Can’t Handle Rays’ Pressure, White Sox Trade Continues to Pay Off

The 2026 MLB playoffs continued Monday with Game 2 of the two American League Division Series. The Chicago White Sox continued their perfect start to the postseason, winning again against the Cleveland Guardians to take a 2-0 series lead. The White Sox are now 4-0 in the postseason, with all four wins coming on the road.

The Tampa Bay Rays, meanwhile, bullied a terrible New York Yankees defense en route to a Game 2 win over Cy Young favorite Cam Schlittler. The Rays had the best record in the AL and a Wild Card Series bye. They are 2-0 in two playoff games.

Since the best-of-five division series became a reality in 1995, the team that won the first game has won the series 73% of the time and 32% of the time the series has ended in a sweep. The White Sox and Rays are certainly in charge right now. Here are the final scores from Monday’s playoffs:

• FINAL: White Sox 4, Guardians 3 (box score); The White Sox lead the series 2-0
• FINAL: Rays 5, Yankees 2 (box score); Rays lead series 2-0

To summarize all the action of ALDS Game 2, we are here to declare the winner and loser of both games. You can find these authoritative and indisputable statements just below.

Winner: Put the ball in play

Rays force Yankees to play defense in ALDS

The ALDS is a contrast of styles. The Rays ranked 22nd in home runs during the regular season and had the lowest strikeout rate. The Yankees ranked second in home runs and had the fourth highest strikeout rate. The Rays used a solo home run to earn a 1-0 win in Game 1, so they have some power. In Game 2, their contact skills led to a comedy of errors by the Yankees.

The New York infield committed four (!) misplays over the first five batters of the game. to give the Rays a 1-0 lead on Monday. Ryan McMahon whiffed on a ground ball, Jazz Chisholm Jr. threw the ball away on a double play attempt, Austin Wells committed catcher’s interference, then Chisholm picked George Lombard Jr. off the bag on a 4-6-3 double play attempt. A calamity is:

It didn’t stop there. The Rays scored four runs in a fifth inning that began with Spencer Jones making a terrible jump on a leadoff single (Statcast had it 13.4 feet below average) that fell in front of him. Lombard then moved a grounder with the infield and a runner on third, and first baseman Luis Gárcia Jr. slammed the potential third out in and out of his glove.

Gárcia’s play was blamed for an error on Lombard for throwing it offline. Regardless, that extended the inning and Richie Palacios followed with a two-run single to give the Rays a 5-1 lead.

In total, the Yankees were charged with four errors in Game 2 (Chisholm, Lombard, McMahon, Wells), and they committed three other game errors that were not scoring errors. This has been the scouting report for years. Put the ball in play and the Yankees will fight. No team is better positioned to take advantage than the Rays.

The win puts Tampa one win away from its first trip to the ALCS since 2020.

Loser: Ben Rice

Rice was the best hitter in the playoffs, but his efforts were in vain on Monday

For what? Because his teammates made his monster play a footnote. Ben Rice went 2 for 3 with two homers and a walk in game two. He is 7-for-15 with four homers in New York’s four playoff games. It’s only been a few games, but Rice has been the best hitter in baseball in October.

Here’s his first homer of Game 2, which temporarily tied the game 1-1:

Rice’s big playoff run didn’t come out of nowhere. He hit 41 homers and was a deserving All-Star this year, and his 67 homers over the last two years are 13th in baseball. And this, even if Rice only became a pillar of the lineup at the end of last April. The Yankees are without Aaron Judge due to injury, but Rice is currently doing his best Judge impression.

Two games into the ALDS, the Yankees have scored two runs on Rice’s solo homers, and they have almost as many errors (four) as hits (five). Rice tries, but he can’t do everything himself. The Yankees are one loss away from their second straight ALDS loss and Rice’s postseason efforts have been for naught.

Winner: The Garrett Hook Business

The White Sox traded Crochet in 2024, and the three position players they got in return all contributed in Game 2.

For the second time in the postseason, the three position players the White Sox received in the Garrett Crochet trade to the Red Sox guided them to a victory. They did it in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Astrosand in Game 2 of the ALDS on Monday. Those three players – Chase Meidroth, Braden Montgomery, Kyle Teel – went a combined 4-for-12 with 3 RBIs.

Teel helped the White Sox get on the board with his leadoff single in the fourth inning. He then came to score Chicago’s first point on a single from Munetaka Murakami. Montgomery delivered the biggest blow of the game. He delivered a two-out, two-run double to right field in the sixth inning that turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead for the White Sox. This, as the children say, is a great success:

Meidroth followed with a single to right to score Montgomery and give the White Sox what proved to be an important insurance run. The Hook trade bonus had four of Chicago’s six hits in Game 2 and scored or drove in all four runs. Sean Burke, who was not part of the Crochet trade, pitched 5 ⅓ innings of one run behind two openers. He struck out six. He was great.

The White Sox didn’t want to trade Hook two years ago. However, they had just lost a modern record 121 games and needed to add talent up and down the roster. So, Hook was dealt to Boston, and it appears general manager Chris Getz pulled off the trade. Three of the four players he received in the deal will play major roles in October. This is how you write it.

Pope Leo’s White Sox are now one win away from their first ALCS since winning the 2005 World Series.

Loser: GuardsBall

The Guardians’ offense has been absent for 18 innings so far in the postseason.

It’s really, really tough to hit in the playoffs. You don’t believe me? The teams entered Monday hitting .211/.293/.352 in the postseason and .174/.277/.295 in the Division Series. The pitchers are so mean, they are well rested thanks to the built-in days off and their matchups are all optimized. Every hit in the playoffs is a tiny miracle, I swear.

The Guardians, after two games in the playoffs, are learning this the hard way. They were shut out in the first game and were held to three hits. In the second game, they managed only four hits, including three singles. Cleveland’s biggest offensive play in the ALDS to date was Sean Newcomb’s two-run throwing error in the first inning on Monday. Here are two of the three points scored by the Guardians in the second game (and the series):

Including Newcomb’s error, four of the first five Keepers reached base in Game 2. Only four of the final 30 reached base, including Jo Adell’s RBI triple in the eighth inning. With all due respect, this is not a dominant White Sox pitching staff. They had to cobble this together with postseason openers and bullpen games. Thanks to them for keeping Cleveland in check.

Guardians aren’t exactly an offensive powerhouse, however. They ranked 24th in runs and 27th in home runs during the regular season. It’s the same story every year. The Guardians rally in the second half to win the AL Central, then struggle to put points on the board in October. That’s certainly the case this year. Three runs on seven hits in two ALDS games. Yeah.

Cleveland is one loss away from elimination. The Guardians are 2-8 in their last 10 playoff games dating back to 2024.