NEW YORK (AP) — Max Fried's words were as sharp as the break on some of his pitches.
"It’s important to have a little bit of pride and to be able to say: `That’s not us and we’re going to prove it,’" the New York Yankees pitcher said.
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New York Yankees starter Gerrit Cole prepares to pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of Game 1 of an American League Division Series baseball game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
New York Yankees' Ben Rice reacts after teammate Cody Bellinger's fly out to end the top of the fifth inning in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan Ebenhack)
Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios celebrates after hitting a two-run single during the fifth inning in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the New York Yankees Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios, right, and Liam Hicks celebrate a victory over the New York Yankees in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
New York Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler leaves Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays during the fifth inning Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan Ebenhack)
After making four errors in a dismal Game 2 defeat, New York's players and staff arrived home about 5 a.m. Tuesday in a 2-0 AL Division Series deficit for the second straight year, this time against the Tampa Bay Rays. The best-of-five matchup resumes Wednesday night in the Bronx with Fried starting for the Yankees and Nick Martinez for the Rays.
With one more loss to Tampa Bay, the World Series title drought for Major League Baseball's winningest team would extend to a 17th season — matching the most since Babe Ruth led New York to its first championship in 1923. New York hasn't advanced past a higher-seeded team in a postseason series since 2020.
“This group has done a really good job all year of bouncing back through a tough game, through some tough moments in the season and handled it all very well. So that’s my expectation this time. It has to be,” said manager Aaron Boone, who spoke with players individually rather than give a rah-rah speech.
Tampa Bay could party at Yankee Stadium for the second time in two weeks, after clinching the AL East on Sept 22.
Seeking their first World Series title, the Rays are nearing an American League Championship Series against the Chicago White Sox or Cleveland. They haven't advanced that far since 2020, when they lost in the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Martinez used to sit in the Yankee Stadium bleachers when he played college ball from 2009-11 at Fordham University, located about 5 miles away.
“I imagine it’s going to be an electric crowd with their season on the line,” he said.
Teams taking 2-0 leads in best-of-five postseason series have won 83 of 93 times, according to MLB. The last comeback from an 0-2 deficit was the 2017 Yankees against Cleveland.
“There's no taking games off,” Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. “Obviously taking the first two has put us in a really good spot, but it’s still the same mindset going forward.”
Third baseman Ryan McMahon, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., shortstop George Lombard Jr. and catcher Austin Wells all made errors in Game 3 that led to three unearned runs in New York's 5-2 loss.
In addition, Lombard didn't field Chandler Simpson's two-hopper and right fielder Spencer Jones allowed Jonathan Aranda's liner — a ball with 65% hit probability — to fall starting the fifth, which sparked a four-run inning.
“It was just one of those things that it all kind of happened back-to-back-to back,” Lombard said.
Throwing errors by McMahon and Chisholm in the first along with a catcher's interference call against Wells gave the Yankees their first three-error postseason inning.
“It didn’t seem like we really showed up today,” pitcher Cam Schlittler said.
Two years ago, the Yankees had two errors and a mental lapse that led to five unearned runs in a season-ending Game 5 World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Tampa Bay put 31 balls in play, two shy of the high for any team in a postseason game this year. The Rays were just behind Milwaukee for the top regular-season team batting average, .2585 to .2581, and led the American League in on-base percentage.
Simpson is 12th in sprint speed and DeLuca 16th among players with at least 150 competitive runs this year, according to MLB Statcast.
“Just very contact-oriented,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Just the speed getting down the line, the urgency it forces on the infielders, really good infielders — it forces them to get out of their comfort zone and make a highlight-reel play. Those are tough to make.”
New York's players in the third through seventh spots of the batting order went 0 for 33 with 11 strikeouts in the first two games: Luis García Jr., Jones, Lombard, Chisholm and Trent Grisham.
Aaron Judge's absence has been glaring.
New York was fourth in runs, 13th in batting average and second in OPS through May 31, its last game before the three-time AL MVP went on the injured list due to a fractured rib.
From June 1 through the end of the season, the Yankees were 24th in runs, 29th in batting average and 27th in OPS. Judge returned for seven games from Sept. 8-16, hitting .174 with three RBIs before a calf strain.
“I’m considering a couple things but haven’t settled on anything,” Boone said of possible lineup changes.
Fried's longtime girlfriend, Reni Meyer-Whalley, is due to give birth any day.
“I’ve got a really supportive family that understands that this is my job, and it’s not going to affect what happens tomorrow,” he said Tuesday.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
New York Yankees starter Gerrit Cole prepares to pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of Game 1 of an American League Division Series baseball game Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
New York Yankees' Ben Rice reacts after teammate Cody Bellinger's fly out to end the top of the fifth inning in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan Ebenhack)
Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios celebrates after hitting a two-run single during the fifth inning in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the New York Yankees Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays' Richie Palacios, right, and Liam Hicks celebrate a victory over the New York Yankees in Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
New York Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler leaves Game 2 of an American League Division Series baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays during the fifth inning Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan Ebenhack)
CNN has a new owner: Skydance.
After a tumultuous, roughly yearlong process, Skydance-owned Paramount closed its $81 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday. And beyond Hollywood, the mega merger brings two titans of the American TV news landscape — CBS and CNN — under the same roof.
On the eve of the deal's completion, Skydance confirmed that CNN's Mark Thompson will stay on as editor-in-chief of the network — separate from CBS, where Bari Weiss remains at the helm. But how the combined company's news operations will look farther down the road is yet to be seen.
Politics are also top of mind. The billionaire family of Skydance CEO David Ellison has a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump — who has been far from shy about targeting coverage he deems unfavorable from both CNN and CBS. Last month, his administration moved to bar CNN from the White House. And the network's new ownership arrives as coverage ramps up less than a month ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Ellison has pledged to maintain editorial independence. And under a recent settlement with states that challenged the merger, the company agreed to establish new monitoring of CBS and CNN by forming a “News Editorial Independence Board” within 180 days of completing its Warner acquisition.
Still, Skydance's corporate leaders will choose who sits on this board. Critics are bracing for potentially deepening editorial turmoil — and warn of consequences of industry consolidation overall.
Skydance announced Monday that Thompson — who has been CNN's chair and CEO since 2023 — would continue to lead the network. In a staff memo published by Business Insider and others, Thompson said he had “real confidence” Ellison and other Skydance leaders “will fully support the principle and practice of the kind of independent news that CNN has always stood for.”
Thompson, a former chief executive of the BBC and The New York Times, acknowledged that some details of how CNN will operate have yet to be finalized — but said he planned to lead the network “with the same responsibilities and prerogatives that I have now.”
CBS News and its hallmark “60 Minutes” program have already seen ample editorial turmoil since coming under Skydance ownership last year. For critics of those changes, news of Thompson staying at CNN marks a meaningful safeguard, but some experts cautioned that time will tell.
“Both CNN and CBS News will ultimately sit under the same corporate ownership, and ownership can exert influence in ways that are much more subtle than directly telling an editor what stories to cover," said J. Christopher Hamilton, an associate professor at Syracuse University.
The long-term question “is whether that independence remains intact when it becomes costly or uncomfortable for the parent company,” he added.
Charles Schreger, an adjunct professor at NYU's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, expects Thompson not to be influenced by politics — and said he doesn't think Skydance would keep the executive on if the company didn't "have the intention of letting him operate (CNN) in a neutral way.”
According to court documents, the new editorial independence body will include five “active or retired” journalists with at least 10 years of experience.
Still, those members will all be appointed by and report to the combined company's board of directors. Ellison is remaining chairman of what is now the combined Skydance.
“While it is termed independent, it is going to be filled with members appointed by Paramount,” said Megan Duncan, an associate professor of journalism at Virginia Tech's School of Communication. She predicts that will “lessen the teeth of this board."
Per the settlement, the board's responsibilities include establishing a set of “guiding editorial principles” based on CBS and CNN's standards and practices, resolving “any disputes” between both employees at the two networks and corporate management and “monitoring adherence to ethical journalism.”
Ellison previously promised that editorial independence “will absolutely be maintained” under Paramount ownership.
“It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN,” Ellison told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” in March. And in an August op-ed published by the New York Times he reiterated that “our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause.”
Top prosecutors like California Attorney General Rob Bonta — who led the coalition of 12 states that initially sought to block the Paramount-Warner merger — have said this new board will help “ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting."
Still, others wished the settlement could've gone further. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong wanted a full divestiture of CNN and CBS and said last month he was “deeply disappointed that we could not do more.”
Meanwhile, while joining the rest of the states in the wider settlement, Colorado and Washington notably declined to sign off on the editorial board terms.
Separately, as part of a settlement with Hollywood writers, the Writers Guild of America said Paramount also agreed to prohibit writer layoffs specifically at CBS News Broadcast for the next five years.
Experts like Duncan stress it will be important to keep an eye on any future job cuts — or merging of future resources in the name of profits.
That might look like CNN and “60 Minutes" being able to share findings from one high-profile interview, for example, she explains. A consequence could be fewer approaches to report on important stories.
“The more news that we have that is competing for an audience’s credibility and attention, the better off we are as a democracy,” Duncan said. She also pointed to CNN's robust international coverage today, and warned there might be cuts to that reporting if the company chooses to focus on consolidating its U.S. audience — which could have an outsized impact on “our first draft of history.”
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are also set to hold sizable indirect ownership stakes of the now-combined Skydance. These investors don't have voting interests in the company, but critics say the money opens the door to potential behind-the-scenes influence overall.
Last month, Trump barred CNN — as well as Politico and MS NOW — from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage. All three outlets since filed a joint lawsuit, and are continuing to fight their case in court.
CNN has long attracted ire from the Republican president and members of his administration. Earlier this year, the White House attacked CNN for its coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
CBS has faced its own attacks from Trump, too. Skydance’s 2025 acquisition of Paramount was approved by the Federal Communications Commission just weeks after the company agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over editing at the network's “60 Minutes” program.
Back in December, just days after Paramount launched its then-hostile bid for Warner, Trump said that CNN spread “poison and lies” and that it was “imperative” the network be sold.
He applauded the merger's closing more broadly on Tuesday — saying Skydance is “going to be a great company.”
Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman in London contributed.
This image taken with a smartphone shows the exterior of the Warner Bros. Discovery headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Guido Neira)
FILE - A journalist records video near a CNN sign on an athletic field outside the Clements Recreation Center where the CNN/New York Times will host the Democratic presidential primary debate at Otterbein University, Monday, Oct. 14, 2019, in Westerville, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
