The Yankees changed their Yankees lineup for Game 3 on Wednesday, turning to José Caballero at third base and Anthony Volpe at second as they tried to save their season against the Rays. Ryan McMahon and Jazz Chisholm Jr. moved out of the starting infield, and Caballero got his first start of the postseason.
That switch was built on more than one need. Aaron Boone had stayed with the same eight-lefty lineup in Games 1 and 2, but the Yankees had managed only two solo home runs from Ben Rice in those games, a thin return for a team facing elimination. Trent Grisham led off, Austin Wells hit sixth, and Luis Garcia Jr. stayed at first base, leaving Boone with a lineup that mixed continuity with a sharper edge.
Caballero also brought a personal layer to the move: he was starting against his former team. But the baseball case for change was hard to miss after Game 2, when the Yankees made four errors and Chisholm was part of the mess with a wild, ill-advised throw to first base while trying to turn a double play and another high throw to second that erased a chance at a double play. McMahon had already committed a fielding error on the first ball put in play in the bottom of the first inning on Saturday night at Tropicana Field, which left the defense looking as unstable as the offense.
Boone had already shown in Game 1 of the AL wild-card series that he would adjust against a lefty, starting Volpe over Chisholm against Payton Tolle. This time, the opponent was Rays right-hander Nick Martinez, and the Yankees needed both a spark and cleaner execution. Whether Caballero and Volpe could provide either one was the question hanging over Game 3, because anything short of a better night would leave the Yankees with nowhere to go.
