The score is 1-0. There’s 2 outs in the top of the 8th inning in a crucial playoff game, and the Yankees have 0 hits. The division-rival Rays need 4 more hitless outs to not only record a no-hitter, but to make a powerful statement to the rest of the league.
In steps Austin Wells, the Yankee catcher who had just authored his worst offensive regular season as a big leaguer, desperate to give his team a hint of momentum. After all, it was still just a 1-run game. On a 1-0 sinker on the inside of the plate, he did just that, pulling a ball 107.8mph off his bat down the right field line and into the corner. He did it. He’d broken up the no-hitter and put himself in scoring position, needing just one more base hit to tie the game.
He ran past first, digging for second, but he didn’t stop. He rounded second, taking aim at third base. Yankees fans felt their stomach rise into their throats as Wells, not known for his speed, was gunned down at third base by a perfect relay from the outfield, erasing any sense of positive energy for the team from the Bronx.
Though that will be a moment that sends shivers down the spines of Yankee fans for years to come, Wells isn’t the story. Instead, it’s the man, the “grinder,” who quietly orchestrated a work of art from the mound of Tropicana Field. It’s the man who off the field has dealt with numerous setbacks that all but told him he wasn’t supposed to pitch in the big leagues. It was Drew Rasmussen’s night, and no one in the Rays’ dugout was surprised.
On Wednesday night, the Rays swept the formidable New York Yankees in the best-of-5 American League Division Series (ALDS) in no small part due to Rasmussen’s Game 1 performance. When Rasmussen twirled 8 shutout innings, including taking a no-hitter through 2 outs in the 8th, no one familiar with the 2026 Tampa Bay Rays was surprised. At least, they shouldn’t have been. The guy who struck out 10 Yankees was simply doing what he’s been doing this season: dominating. Pitching in a small-market like Tampa Bay has forced Rasmussen to fly under the radar to most baseball fans, which is unfortunate because he is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.
The Rays won 98 games this season, third-most in baseball behind the Dodgers (103) and the Brewers (100), but the media and the world was focused on the Yankees. Naturally so, the world’s most famous organization has a good chance to add on to its unmatched history with a World Series win. To have a shot at doing so, they’d have to first face the Rays in the ALDS. When Game 1 came around, baseball fans not yet familiar with the Rays’ ace were about to become very, very familiar.
Rasmussen would take a no-hitter into the 8th inning before surrendering the first Yankee hit of the night. He managed to make this Yankees offense look helpless. In addition to the single hit he allowed, he walked just 2 and struck out 10, the 4th time he’s recorded 10+ strikeouts this season (including the postseason). Interestingly enough, the third such start for him this year was his last start against none other than the Yankees, when he struck out 11 over 6.2 innings.
This time around was historic. Some interesting statistical nuggets from MLB’s Sarah Langs are:
- Rasmussen became the seventh pitcher in postseason history to take a no-hit bid at least 7 2/3 innings
- His 10 strikeouts tied Tyler Glasnow’s Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS for most strikeouts in a postseason game in Rays history
- Rasmussen induced 23 swings and misses, the most in any game of his career, regular season or playoffs, and it was also 5 more than any Rays pitcher in a postseason game in franchise history.
- Only 7 other pitchers have had at least 10 strikeouts and 1 or no hits allowed in a scoreless postseason outing: Blake Snell (2025 NLCS G1), Trey Yesavage (2025 ALDS G2), Max Scherzer (2019 NLCS G2), Anibal Sánchez (2013 ALCS G1), Roger Clemens (2000 ALCS G4), Mike Mussina (1997 ALCS G6) and Moe Drabowsky (1966 WS G1).
- Along with closer Bryan Baker, the Rays’ pitching duo combined to hold the Yankees to one hit, the fewest hits the Yankees have recorded in any postseason game in franchise history.
This shouldn’t be viewed as a fluke, either. Rasmussen has been this pitcher all season long.
He was their Opening Day starter, throwing 5 innings of 1-run ball. Consistent run prevention would be the theme of Rasmussen’s season, as he allowed 2 or fewer earned runs in 23 of his 30 starts (77%).
His overall season featured career-highs in innings pitched (172.0) and strikeouts (174), while delivering the AL’s best WHIP (0.91) and AL’s 4th-best ERA (2.67). He produced his best season in terms of control, walking 4.8% of batters (good for 2nd-lowest in baseball behind teammate Nick Martinez’s 3.6%) and combining that with a career strikeout campaign, which led to a strikeout-minus-walk-rate (K-BB%) of 21.2%, which tied the likes of Paul Skenes for 12th-best in baseball. He recorded 18 quality starts, meaning he went 6+ innings and allowed 3 or fewer earned runs in 60% of his starts.
More than that, he led the rotation of a 98-win Rays team that wasn’t supposed to win 98 games. Their projection by FanGraphs’ reputable ZiPS projections was to be a 75-win team. Not only was his play on the field worth ogling over, but also his story off of it. He wouldn’t be here without a series of setbacks that would push others to their absolute limit.
In 2016, Oregon State pitcher Drew Rasmussen underwent Tommy John surgery on his elbow, not uncommon for a young pitcher. He’d be drafted by none other than the Rays in the first round of the 2017 draft, but wouldn’t sign with the team for undisclosed reasons, sending him back to Oregon State for his senior season. Before that season, he’d undergo a second Tommy John surgery, causing him to miss the entirety of that year and fall to the 6th round of the 2018 draft.
If coming back from two Tommy Johns and making the majors wasn’t difficult enough, Rasmussen was placed on the injured list in May of 2023 with a flexor strain in his elbow. In July, he’d be faced with the reality that he had to undergo yet another elbow procedure, a hybrid internal brace procedure of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). Three elbow operations in 7 years. Not many come back from that.
Still, Rasmussen worked his way back. He’d return in 2024 with a controlled workload, going an inning or two at a time as the team got him back to length. In 2025, he’d make 31 starts and throw 150 innings to a 2.76 ERA, reaching the summit of a nearly insurmountable peak.
It makes this latest performance all the more sweet.
So, while we revel in the joy and the inevitable uncertainty of the playoffs, remember that the truly great players make themselves relatively certain. Rasmussen represents the “grinder,” the type of player that wallows in the depths of injury limbo, fighting to stay afloat, yet never losing hope. The “grinder” has turned himself into a force to be reckoned with over the last two seasons, and is putting his arsenal on full display against the most legendary of opponents.
3 elbow operations didn’t slow Drew Rasmussen down and, with a World Series berth just 4 wins away now for the Rays, baseball fans best believe the “grinder” won’t lose hope any time soon.
