MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-16

MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-16

1. Travis d’Arnaud, 72 percent

The Yankees have spent a good portion of the season trying to bury their divisional rivals, the Rays, and Red Sox, and they’ve done a good job of it. New York is 18-5 against the two teams, putting both on the fringes of wild card consideration.

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As good as that sounds, it might have been better. The Yankees let one get away Monday at Yankee Stadium.

Trailing the Rays 2-0 early, the Yankees got game-tying home runs from Edwin Encarnacion and Gio Urshela, then took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth on Encarnacion’s second home run. Then they turned the ninth over to Chapman, who has already piled up 25 saves.

In fewer than 37 innings, Chapman has struck out 53 batters. But the Rays showed in the ninth that if you can make contact on Chapman – admittedly a big ‘if’ – you can get to him.

Kevin Kiermaier opened the inning with a roller past third base, and he took second on Guillermo Heredia’s line drive hit to left.

Chapman recovered his form well enough to whiff Willy Adames and Joey Wendle, moving the Yankees within one out of victory. In that situation – two-out, two on and two runs down – the Rays’ chances of winning measured just 8 percent.

But Travis d’Arnaud came up and got all he needed of a 3-2 Chapman pitch, sending it down the right-field line to Yankee Stadium’s shortest porch for a home run.

That gave Tampa a 5-4 lead and an 80 percent chance of winning. When Andrew Kittredge and Oliver Drake recorded the final three outs, the Rays had their comeback win.