Yankees lose AL East to Rays with Game 2 defeat in doubleheader split

The Yankees will not accomplish the chief goal of their regular season, which will make their chief goal of the postseason harder to accomplish.That Aaron Boone’s group will have to play a best-of-three series in the wild-card round — almost certainly against the Red Sox in The Bronx and almost certainly without Aaron Judge — is discouraging for a club that sought to avoid the same precarious position that it encountered last season.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

That Boone’s group was forced to watch the Rays clinch — and celebrate the AL East title that the Yankees made it their mission to win — on The Bronx grass sure must have added some irritation and maybe some motivation.One year later, the Yankees will enter the postseason the same way: through the dreaded back door that adds to their World Series degree of difficulty.The Rays celebrated a 6-1 nightcap victory and division title on Tuesday night at the Stadium, where a 2-0 Yankees matinee win simply delayed the inevitable.In Game 157, Tampa Bay (96-61) won its first AL East championship since 2021, and the Yankees (90-67) wrapped up the top wild card for a second consecutive season.After Bryan Baker induced a ground out from George Lombard Jr.

to end it, Baker raised his arms in triumph and the Rays began congratulating one another while the Yankees quietly shuffled out of their own dugout.Last year it was the Blue Jays who edged out the Yankees (through a tiebreaker), forcing Boone’s crew to sweat out a three-game set against Boston before wilting against that Toronto club, which could arrange its starting pitchers and had home-field advantage.And so the Yankees were vocal all spring and all season that this year, they expected better.But amid a campaign with too many lulls, too many notable injuries and not enough step-ups during those injuries, they will enter October in the same...