Rasmussen struck out every Yankees hitter at least once except Luis Garcia Jr. and Ryan McMahon. He finished with 10 strikeouts, two walks, and one hit on 101 pitches (69 strikes), setting multiple franchise records along the way. 

Teams that win Game 1 of their respective Division Series move on to the Championship Series [a href="https://x.com/SlangsOnSports/status/2106519103964074288?s=20" target="_blank"]73% of the time[/a]. 

Game recap

This was a pitcher's duel from beginning to end. Gerrit Cole was done after five innings, giving up five hits and one walk with five strikeouts. The lone run he gave up came from a Jonathan Aranda solo home run in the bottom of the third inning. 

It was not only Aranda's first Postseason home run, but it was also the first Postseason hit of his current five-year career to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.

And that's all that was needed.

In his Postseason debut, Yankees reliever Ryan Weathers finished the sixth inning 1-2-3 with three straight ground balls that were all hit to Garcia Jr. at first base. That was all she wrote for Weathers' debut before the team brought in Paul Blackburn in the seventh.

But the night was all Rasmussen. He had retired 13 straight batters entering the top of the eighth inning with 94 pitches. 

Rasmussen's 10 strikeouts at that point were the most by any Rays pitcher in Postseason history. It was also the first time in Yankees history that they had ever gone hitless through the first six innings, let alone seven, in a Postseason matchup - that's 447 games. 

Much like Weathers an inning before him, Blackburn had a clean bottom of the seventh inning with a 1-2-3 after forcing a foul out, ground out, and pop out. 

The 7.1 innings of no-hit work from Rasmussen also set a Rays pitching Postseason record before he went on to finish the inning. New York's Tyler Wells hit a frozen rope down the first baseline, but tried to leg it out for a triple. 

He was eventually thrown out at third, but the hit still counts as a double, effectively ending Rasmussen's no-hit bid. 

Rasmussen was just four outs away from becoming the third pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter, the other two being Don Larsen (1956) and Roy Halladay (2010). 

During the bottom of the eighth, Yankees reliever Brent Headrick walked back-to-back hitters with two outs as runners were posted at first and second, giving the Rays a prime opportunity to extend the lead. 

But Headrick proved clutch after facing Chandler Simpson, forcing him to ground out to end the inning. Simpson had finished the regular season just behind American League MVP favorite Yordan Alvarez with the second-best batting average (.306).

And in comes the top of the ninth inning. 

Bryan Baker, tied for the MLB lead in saves during the regular season, went on to strike out Giancarlo Stanton and Ben Rice before forcing Cody Bellinger to ground out to first.