Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees Face Off In 2-Game Series

The Tampa Bay Rays host the New York Yankees in a quick two-game series at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring training home. The Yankees look to stay hot against the Tampa Rays. New York swept the St. Louis Cardinals and took two of three from the Minnesota Twins.

The Yankees have improved their playoff chances and need to win both games against the Rays. The Yankees have good starting pitchers going for them against the Rays. The Yankees should run on the Rays, as they have emphasized that aspect of their game recently. How many bases do you think the Yankees will steal against the Rays?

Preview Of Yankees-Rays Pitching

In the first game of the series, Carlos Rodon will square off against Shane Baz. In this first game, the Yankees should have the pitching advantage, but Rodon needs to pitch better than he has in recent outings. He needs to break his streak of three games of pitching fewer than five innings. He is only 2-2 against the Rays. The Yankees are counting on him to be good in this game.

Rodon has pitched 146.2 innings this year, and he has a 12-7 record. Significantly, he has only a 3.25 earned run average and has held opponents to a .186 batting average. His pursuit of 200 strikeouts is enthralling. He has 164 strikeouts now. He is striking out fewer batters recently, so he needs to step up his pace.

Baz is pitching for the Tampa Rays. He is 8-9 this season, with a 4.93 earned run average. He has 140 strikeouts in 135 innings pitched. That is a good ratio, more than one an inning, and could pose a problem for the free-swinging Yankees.

In the second game of this series, Drew Rasmussen pitches for Tampa against Cam Schlitter of the Yankees. Tampa has the advantage in terms of experience in this game, but the young Schlittler throws hard and has pitched well for the Yankees. Yankees Manager Aaron Boone must not pull him after only 86 pitches, like he did in his last start.

Homecoming For Jose Caballero 

This series will be a homecoming for Yankees’ utility player Jose Caballero. He was traded from the Rays to the Yankees when the two teams played each other at Yankee Stadium at the end of July. It was odd. All Caballero had to do was walk from one clubhouse to the other.

In the few weeks Caballero has been with the Yankees, he has dramatically affected the team. He can play a multitude of positions. He is also fast, and speed does not slump. He has 39 stolen bases and is a threat to run every time he reaches base. That speed has seemed to revitalize both Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Volpe, who are both running now. Caballero played shortstop for Anthony Volpe yesterday.

Yankees-Rays Hitting Preview

The best hitter in Tampa is Junior Caminero. He has a .258 batting average and only a .298 on-base percentage, but he kills the Yankees. Yandy Diaz is a professional hitter with a .462 slugging percentage. Brandon Lowe hurts the Yankees, but strikes out  25.4% of the time. Chandler Simpson might be the fastest player in Major League Baseball.

For the Yankees, Aaron Judge still leads baseball in most offensive categories. However, he has been struggling since coming off the injured list. There were signs of him coming back to life in the last two games in St. Louis. Cody Bellinger has had a great season, though his .264 batting average has suffered somewhat recently due to an illness. Trent Grisham, Volpe, and Paul Goldschmidt have each played well.

They are all big hitters for the Yankees, and Ben Rice could be the most dangerous of the bunch. The aforementioned Caballero is dangerous, and the Rays know him well. They must keep him off the bases.

Conclusion

This is a short two-game series. However, to keep pace in the playoff race, the Yankees need to win them both. Therefore, this is a big series. It is important that the Yankees not look past this brief series to the four-game series with the Red Sox.