Taylor Walls Has Impressive Yankee Stadium Streak Broken

May 17, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Taylor Walls (6) hits a three rbi triple against the Miami Marlins in the fourth inning at Tropicana Field. Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Taylor Walls Has Impressive Yankee Stadium Streak Broken

Originally posted on Tampa Bay Rays on SI
By Kenneth Teape | Last updated May 25, 2026 7:00 AM ET

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The Tampa Bay Rays had some impressive streaks on the line heading into their series on the road against the New York Yankees.

Some of them, such as their streak of not being defeated in a series, winning Game 1 of a series, and Nick Martinez’s dominance, were continued. The Rays won the opener with Martinez on the mound before rain canceled Game 2.

Game 3 was a walk-off win for the Yankees, with Aaron Judge hitting a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning for the only runs of the game. When he walked off Tampa Bay, one of the impressive streaks carried into the series came to an end.

Shortstop Taylor Walls, who isn’t known for his production at the plate, has been very comfortable hitting at Yankee Stadium. He came into the series reaching base in 14 straight games played at New York’s home field.

Taylor Walls has on-base streak snapped at Yankee Stadium

Mike Watters-Imagn Images

The streak started on Aug. 17, 2022, producing the fourth-best average by any player at Yankee Stadium during that span, per the Rays game notes shared by their official account on X heading into the series.

That streak reached 15 games when Walls drew a walk in the opener. However, it was snapped when he went 0-for-4 at the plate with one strikeout, leaving two men on base. He and Chandler Simpson were the only two starters to not reach base at least once in the series finale.

That performance dropped Walls’s overall season slash line to .203/.309/.288. He leaves a lot to be desired with the bat, but has come up with timely and clutch at-bats to contribute to the team’s incredible level of success thus far in 2026.

Some ✍️ before the series starts pic.twitter.com/ObeljH3zm6
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 22, 2026

Tough bats are consistently put together, striking out 33 times in 141 plate appearances to go along with 17 walks. His speed can also be an asset, stealing six bases thus far this season and being in the 84th percentile in Baserunning Run Value per Baseball Savant.

Of course, anything that he provides offensively is a bonus. His value all comes from the elite defense that he plays at shortstop, where he was a finalist for the Gold Glove Award in the American League in 2025 despite playing only 720.2 innings at the position.

He led the MLB with 14 Total Fielding Runs Above Average, per Baseball Reference, along with 4.48 Range Factor per nine innings, in 2025. His Outs Above Average of +2 is in the 83rd percentile, making up for his hitting profile that is well below average.

This article first appeared on Tampa Bay Rays on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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