New York Yankees: Looking ahead to upcoming Rays series

Two of the best teams in the AL, the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays, are set to square off once again with major division implications on the line.

The New York Yankees have a serious fight on their hands if they want to win the AL East this year, and the team that is going to be stalking them down the entire way is the Tampa Bay Rays.

The two teams met a little over a week ago for the first time and the Rays came out on top in a four-game set by winning three of the four at The Trop.

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Come tonight, the two teams will square off again at Yankee Stadium in a three-game set with the Yanks holding a 2.5-game lead for first place in the division. If the Yankees can somehow get two or three games out of this series, they could put a lot of distance between them and second place in the East as we come down the stretch of August.

Huge series here and it’s going to be a battle.

I’m someone who actually took the plunge and picked the Rays to win the East this year and actually get to the World Series (way back before COVID messed everything up), and up until they met the Yanks this season, I wasn’t overly impressed with them.

But now they seem to be finding their groove as winners of eight of their last ten games. They’re also tied for third in the league in scoring, which is something I thought they could struggle with this year being that their strength was clearly pitching and last year they were tied for 15th in the same category.

For me, the biggest test was going to be how the Rays’ pitching did against the big Yankees lineup because even though we all know how great the trio of Blake Snell-Tyler Glasnow-Charlie Morton can be, the Yanks took care of business last year winning 12 of 19 games against the Rays.

Who has the pitching advantage between the New York Yankees and the Rays?

From what went down in The Trop in the first series, I think it’s fair to say the Rays’ pitching came ready to battle this time around.

Game one was a pitching duel between Blake Snell and Masahiro Tanaka. Both guys looked great, especially Tanaka. Snell had a short hook and was pulled early, but Andrew Kittredge looked good for two innings. Pete Fairbanks did his thing as well after that. Diego Castillo walked two guys and had to get bailed out by Nick Anderson. But then Chaz Roe closed it out and cut through a strong Yankees lineup with ease.

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Game two belonged to the Yanks with Gerrit Cole punching out 10 and the Yankee lineup getting to Tyler Glasnow for four earned runs. Glasnow is a very raw talent on the mound still to this day with some control issues and the Yankees exposed that impressively.

Game three was a bullpen game for both Tampa and New York being that it was game two of a doubleheader. Both teams went back-and-forth, but the deciding factor was the Yankees pitching walking nine Rays batters in the Rays’ slight 5-3 victory.

Game four was a crazy one in that the Yanks got to Charlie Morton early for three hits and an earned run before Morton had to leave with his shoulder problem. At the same time, the unthinkable took place on the Yankees’ side with James Paxton actually getting past the fourth inning and, on top of that, punching out 11 Rays batters. Absolute insanity considering how bad Paxton has otherwise been this year. But it was another close game that the Rays pulled out late to win 4-3.

All-in-all, I would say the two teams matched up pretty well and the Yankees did a lot of good things in a tough place for them (historically) to play. They matched the Rays in scoring 14-14. They didn’t get to see a ton of Snell nor Morton and the Rays bullpen did a good job of stifling their offense, but the key here is how they were able to get to the young Glasnow in game two.

Now the series shifts back to Yankee Stadium and both teams have their share of injury problems. The Yanks’ lineup is missing its two-best contributors this year in DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge, plus Giancarlo Stanton, and the Rays’ pitching staff is minus Charlie Morton, Andre Kittredge, Oliver Drake, and one of their best relievers in Jose Alvarado with Yonny Chirinos having just come back off the IL and throwing 50 pitches Sunday (so the Yanks won’t see a ton of him, if at all).

I would say the Yanks get a big advantage here even though their lineup isn’t at full-strength being that they’ll have their three horses going in Tanaka, Cole, and Paxton in that order and the Rays are a little short-staffed at the moment.

They get Snell tonight, but who knows what kind of leash he will have. Then after that, nobody has been named a starter for games two and three, but you would have to imagine Glasnow will be in there somewhere, probably tomorrow, and then a bullpen game as well with Trevor Richards possibly getting bulk innings.

I picked the Rays to win the East and get to the World Series this year and I was very impressed with how they did against the Yankees in the last series. But this series is going to be the true test. I’m sure their pitching will do a good job because they always do, but their lineup is going up against a hot Masahiro Tanaka and Gerrit Cole and a James Paxton who tore through them last time out.

If the New York Yankees can get a sweep here, they could effectively put the Rays away. If not, then people will most certainly start paying close attention to Tampa.