YGY Radio Show Rewind: Yankees-Rays Preview/Yankees-Orioles Postgame Show

On this special 90-minute edition of the Yanks Go Yard Show, presented by Knoda.com, we took a combined approach at giving you a series preview into the upcoming Yankees-Rays series at Tropicana Field, while also taking a look back at this past series with the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. For the New York Yankees (76-72), it was all about missed opportunities for the Bronx Bombers’ offense against the O’s, as they managed just six runs, while losing three out of four game in the series. That culminated on Sunday night when David Robertson blew his fourth save of the season, a game that ultimately ended on a walk-off double by an ex-Yankee, Kelly Johnson. Another former Yankees’ prospect, Jimmy Paredes, had the walk-off hit that started the series in Game 1 of the doubleheader.

With the Bronx Bombers now five games back of the AL Wild Card with 14 games remaining, all signs point to a second straight year of no postseason. For the team, it is now about finishing out the year strong while having a partial mindset towards 2015. It starts on Monday night when the Yankees head down to Tampa for their final series at Tropicana Field this season to face the Tampa Bay Rays (72-78) in a three-game series.

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These two teams are less than a week removed from facing each other at Yankee Stadium, a series in which New York was able to win the final two games. The highlight of those meetings, was the four-run comeback they had against Tampa Bay on the night Alex Cobb was five outs away from a no-hitter. Chris Young would go on to hit a walk-off home run off of Jake McGee to win the series. Cobb is back on the mound Wednesday night when he will go up against Brandon McCarthy.

Joe Maddon‘s squad was up in Toronto over the weekend, where they were able to take two out of three, putting a severe dent in the Blue Jays’ playoff hopes. Third baseman Evan Longoria has been on a tear as of late, hitting three home runs in his last seven games. The team is 6-7 in the month of September. On Monday, Tampa Bay will call up a couple of players from their Triple-A affiliate, the Durham Bulls. Some of the notables from that list include Monday’s starting pitcher, Alex Colome and infielder Nick Franklin. Franklin was one of the pieces sent to Tampa Bay in the David Price trade back in July.

For this episode, I spoke with Drew Jenkins, the co-editor of Rays Colored Glasses, about his thoughts on last week’s series and what should the number one priority be for Andrew Friedman and the Rays this offseason. Then, Jacob Winters from Yanks Go Yard came on the show to help recap the Orioles’ series as well as look at some of the key issues facing the Yankees next season. Here are some of the topics that were discussed on the show:

• Any issues/concerns with the Rays’ bullpen over the past week
• Reaction to the Rays possibly lowering their payroll in 2015
• Pitching Matchups
• Alex Colome making his second start of the season Monday – What are Rays looking to see from him?
• Only Yankees to face him are Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki
•  Chris Capuano (Monday’s Yankees’ starter) giving up four earned runs in each of his last two starts
• Any concerns with Jake Odorizzi for Tuesday after blowing four-run lead vs. Yankees last week
• Michael Pineda doing a great job of pounding the strike zone (Tuesday’s starter)
• Alex Cobb with much better control of his pitch arsenal in the last three starts
• Brandon McCarthy‘s flyball numbers going up, but no walks vs. Baltimore in his last start
• Rays’ Players To Watch (Drew: Yunel Escobar and Nick Franklin, Me: James Loney and Wil Myers)
• Yankees’ Players To Watch: Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki/Antoan Richardson
• Drew’ Grade Of The Rays this season
• Should the Yankees bring back David Robertson at all costs next season?
• Thoughts on Bryan Mitchell‘s first start last Friday in Game 2 of the doubleheader
• Alex Rodriguez‘s role with New York next year
• Why Jacob thinks J.J. Hardy could be the perfect replacement at shortstop for Derek Jeter
• Other non-Derek Jeter topics to watch for in the final two weeks of the season

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