The New York Yankees will head to Florida still sitting atop the AL East while the Tampa Bay Rays sit closer to the bottom of the division despite climbing back closer to the .500 mark. These two teams have already met six times here in 2017 with the Yankees taking four of those games and outscoring the Rays by a combined 10-runs.
This series will be contested from Friday, May 19, 2017 through Sunday, May 21, 2017 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
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Pitching Matchups
The young gun opens this series for the Yankees as Luis Severino will get Friday’s start. The young right-hander has been very good so far this season. He’s looking more like the 2015 version of himself than the version we saw last year.
While the early returns for Severino have been positive, the same cannot be said about the two veterans taking the hill for the Bronx Bombers on Saturday and Sunday with Masahiro Tanaka and CC Sabathia closing out the series.
On the other side of the field, the Rays will look to Erasmo Ramirez to slide into the rotation taking over for Blake Snell on Friday and then will have Matt Andriese and Chris Archer pitching on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
So, while the Yankees have vastly outproduced any expectations for them, their weakness remains in the rotation.
Severino is one of few exceptions to those concerns. He’s just 23 and already into his third season in the Majors. He’s grown since some struggles last year. He’s now 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.071 WHIP in 42 innings.
While the season has been very good for Severino, he must rebound from a rough start his last time out as the Astros knocked him out of the game in the third inning.
It was a similar story for Tanaka the last time out, too. The Yankees’ de facto ace was knocked around by Houston on Sunday night. He allowed six runs right out of the gate capped off by a Grand Slam off the bat of Alex Bregman. The homer has been a big issue for Tanaka. He’s already given up 10 home runs this year in just 45 innings. His hit rate and walks have also gone up over years past while his strikeout rate is the lowest of his career.
In whole, Tanaka has a 5.80 ERA. Things were looking up for Tanaka prior to his last start. He does have a shutout this year and four quality starts in his last six outings and is 5-2 overall. That said, the last time Tanaka faced Tampa Bay, he was knocked out in the third, giving up seven runs, two home runs and 12 base runners.
As for Sabathia, he was looking good through the first few games this year, but his ERA is back near 5 and he’s looking like the same shell of his former self he’s been the last few years. Unlike Tanaka and Severino, however, Sabathia’s last start was very good. He went 6.2 innings, allowing just five hits and no runs in that span, but that came on the heels of a four start stretch that resulted in 22 runs in 20.2 innings.
Over his career, Sabathia is 15-14 against the Rays in 42 starts with a respectable, but not dominant, 3.76 ERA. Much of the better numbers feeding into that came in years past.
For the Rays, the Friday night starter will be Ramirez who will be making just his second start of the year. In the first one, he went five-innings, giving up one run on April 20 against the Tigers. Since then, the most he’s pitched has been four innings against the Orioles on April 26. Since that time, he’s only thrown one or two innings in each outing.
Ramirez has a 2.92 ERA in 24.2 innings, but he’s allowed three runs in four innings against the Yankees. His pitch count also figures to be low, making this likely to be a big bullpen game. He’s not thrown more than 66 pitches in any game this year.
With the pen likely to be leaned on for a number of innings in the series opener, Andriese and Archer will be asked to give more length.
Andriese has pitched as well as anyone in the rotation for the Rays this year. He’s 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA despite a 1.324 WHIP. He is prone to walks from time-to-time, but has done well limiting damage. In his only start against New York this year, the Rays lost, but he did go six, one-run innings.
Archer will close out the series for Tampa Bay. He’s 3-2 with a 3.70 ERA and 1.217 WHIP in 58.1 innings. His FIP is 3.16. Archer has bounced back from a rough 2016 and is once again giving the Rays a chance to win nearly every time out. Last start was an exception. In that start, he did allow six runs in five innings against Cleveland.
Who's Hot?
Is it fair to still call Starlin Castro hot or is this just who he is now? Has he finally taken his came to the next level?
The Yankees second baseman is outplaying all the Cubs infielders who Chicago decided to keep instead of him. He’s hitting .351 with a .932 OPS. He’s second on the team to Aaron Judge in RBIs with 26 and has been the best second baseman in the AL over the first month and a half.
Castro has settled into the cleanup spot in the order here in May and has kept on keeping on since taking that spot. Prior to that, this team was using several unconventional clean up options like Jacoby Ellsbury. Now, the lineup stacks up much better provided Castro can keep it up and so far, he’s shown no signs of slowing down.
Mentioned earlier, Judge is another player that just isn’t slowing down. His power has leveled off since the start of May, but his average is up from .300 on May 1 to .320 right now.
The Yankees’ offense in general has continued to slug and that’s continued to allow this team to remain atop the standings. We finally saw some vulnerability in the series against Houston, but the last two games still yielded 18 runs from the Bronx Bombers.
The bullpen could also be pointed to after the injury to Aroldis Chapman, but the team still has several strong options to close the door. This team is deep everywhere but in the rotation.
For the Rays, Corey Dickerson is swinging very well. He’ll never be known for his glove which is why the team has banished him primarily to the DH role, but he’s hitting .335 with nine homers and a team leading .990 OPS. Logan Morrison is hitting well, too. He’s very prepared as a hitter and las 11 home runs and a .861. He’s getting on base at a .331 clip despite a .246 average as he’s patient and takes many pitches.
Who's Not?
It’s hard to pick a soft spot in the Yankees’ order, but after a red-hot start, Chase Headley has gone ice cold. His season stats are still around league average, but he’s cooled way off. Fortunately, the rest of the order has covered.
Evan Longoria is another third baseman not swinging the hottest of sticks. He’s hitting just .232 with a .689 OPS, getting on base less than 30-percent of the time. Those numbers just aren’t good enough for the face of the franchise.
Brad Miller’s bat has also gone missing. He provided 30 bombs last year, but the power is gone. He’s missed the last few games with injury and is hitting over the Mendoza Line right now solely thanks to a three-hit game on May 15 before his injury. Prior to that, he was batting .188.
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