Tampa Bay @ New York preview
Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( Aug 14, 2011 ) Tampa Bay 0, NY Yankees 0
THE STORY: If the Tampa Bay Rays have any hope of continuing their surge up the wild card standings, they are going to need to take care of business against the New York Yankees. The Rays, who are two games behind the Boston Red Sox in the wild card race, play seven of their final 10 games against New York. The Yankees have their own playoff futures to worry about as they hold a five-game lead over the Red Sox with a magic number of four to clinch a playoff spot and five to clinch the American League East. Tampa Bay will send Wade Davis to the mound against Ivan Nova in the opener of a four-game series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, MLB Network, my9 (New York), SunSports (Tampa Bay)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees RH Ivan Nova (15-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Rays RH Wade Davis (10-9, 4.41).
Nova has not lost since June 3 and is closing the season strong with a 2.41 ERA over his last five outings. The 24-year-old, who yielded one run in 7 1/3 innings at Seattle last week, won at Tampa Bay on May 17 with one run allowed in 5 1/3 innings. Davis beat Boston with a complete-game effort Sept. 9 but lost to the Baltimore Orioles last week. The 26-year-old has battled some inconsistency but has fared well against New York in the past, owning a 2-2 record with a 3.81 ERA in five starts.
ABOUT THE RAYS (85-67): Tampa Bay came within a couple runs of sweeping a four-game set from the Red Sox over the weekend. After dropping Friday’s game, the Rays came back to win Saturday and Sunday to trim their deficit to two games. The Rays have taken six of seven from Boston in September, and 12 of 18 this season. The Yankees have been a different story, taking six of 11 so far from Tampa Bay. Evan Longoria had a big series against the Red Sox, going 6-for-15 with two homers and seven RBIs, and is batting .327 with a .635 slugging percentage and 13 RBIs in the last 15 games, when the Rays went 11-4. The pitching continues to be strong as well, holding teams to an average of 3.4 runs in the last 15 contests.
ABOUT THE YANKEES (92-60): New York has just been sitting back and letting Tampa Bay and the rest of the AL East do its work. Despite going 5-7 over its last 12 games, the Yankees have watched their lead in the East grow from 2½ games on Sept. 6. New York had dropped three of four on the road before coming back to the Bronx for a make-up matinee with the Minnesota Twins on Monday. Mariano Rivera made history with his 602nd career save, passing Trevor Hoffman for first place all-time. Rivera’s save wiped away the sour taste because of the performance of A.J. Burnett, who was given a 5-0 lead but ended up yielding a pair of home runs among eight hits and four runs. Burnett lasted only four-plus innings.
FINAL PITCH: Rivera worked a perfect ninth Monday, striking out Chris Parmelee on three pitches for the final out and setting off a celebration on the mound with his teammates. The 41-year-old is still going strong with 43 saves this season and an ERA of 1.98. He has 57 strikeouts and seven walks.