ST. PETERSBURG — Rays ace Drew Rasmussen carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning Saturday night at Tropicana Field, striking out 10 and blanking the New York Yankees 1-0 before a sold-out crowd of 40,542 in Game 1 of the American League Division Series.

Rasmussen retired 15 straight batters before Austin Wells broke up the no-hit bid with a double down the right-field line with two outs in the eighth — only to be thrown out at third base on a relay from Victor Mesa Jr. to shortstop Taylor Walls to Junior Caminero. Rasmussen walked only two and racked up a career-high 23 swinging strikes, the most by a Ray in a postseason game.

“I’m a pretty big believer that it comes down to two things,” Rasmussen said. “Preparation and execution.”

Rasmussen is the seventh pitcher in the Modern Era to carry a no-hit bid through 7 2/3 innings in the postseason and the first since Aníbal Sánchez did the same for the Nationals against the Cardinals in Game 1 of the 2019 National League Championship Series. It was the longest postseason no-hit bid in franchise history and the longest against the Yankees in the playoffs in the Modern Era.

“He’s the industry standard. At this point, he sets the standard,” pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. “It just goes to show he’s the most underrated starting pitcher in baseball for the last five years — and the gap is significant.”

First baseman Jonathan Aranda’s third-inning homer off Gerrit Cole provided the only run Rasmussen needed. The Rays have won each of the two-time All-Star’s past 13 starts.

“If you look it up, the definition of ace, in my opinion, is Drew Rasmussen,” Aranda said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “He’s done it for us the entire year. He’s been so good for us this whole season.”

Rasmussen said his heart was racing as the no-hit bid deepened. “My heart rate was at a thousand beats per minute,” he said, grinning. “I was just trying to execute one pitch at a time.”

Shortly before Rasmussen’s final regular-season start at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 22 — when he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and struck out 11 to clinch the AL East title for Tampa Bay — manager Kevin Cash had compared the 31-year-old right-hander’s work ethic to Hall of Famer Roy Halladay. “I’ve said a lot of dumb things in my life,” Cash said Saturday. “That one was not.”

Shortstop Taylor Walls offered a simpler assessment. “That’s what he does. He’s a machine, man. He’s like a robot,” Walls said. “He does the same thing every day, every start. He executes efficiently and almost to perfection, and it’s awesome to be behind.”

The victory gives Tampa Bay a significant statistical edge. In all best-of-five postseason series, teams taking a 1-0 lead have gone on to win the series 116 of 160 times, a 73% rate. In Division Series played under the current 2-2-1 format, teams taking a 1-0 lead at home have won 42 of 56 times, or 75%. Game 2 of the ALDS remains at Tropicana Field.