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Yanks Go Yard Radio Show Rewind: Rays-Yankees Preview (4/27-4/29)

By Ricky Keeler

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On this episode of the Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, brought to you by KNODA.com, we did a live combination show of a preview and a postgame. The live show took place during last night’ 6-4 win by the New York Yankees over the New York Mets in the rubber game of the Subway Series. The Bronx Bombers took two of three from the team in Queens over the weekend as Alex Rodriguez is now one home run shy of tying Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time home run list.

This past weekend, Mark Teixeira continued his red hot April with three home runs, including two against Jacob deGrom in the series opener. On Friday, Michael Pineda also brought his best stuff to the table as he gave up only one run in 7.2 innings of work. Even without Jacoby Ellsbury in the lineup last night, New York still put up six runs against Jon Niese as the Yankees are now in a tie for first place (11-8) and will take on the team that they are tied with in a three game series starting tonight.

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The Tampa Bay Rays were swept by the Yankees in the first series between the two teams at Tropicana Field as they were outscored 19-7. However, Tampa Bay is getting healthy with the returns of Drew Smyly (Wednesday’s Rays starter) to the rotation and James Loney to the lineup. Tampa Bay has won five in a row and is coming off a sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend.

One thing that the Yankees have to be grateful for is that they have yet to face Chris Archer this year. In five starts, Archer has stepped up for the Rays as they are without Matt Moore and Alex Cobb. He is 3-2 with a 0.84 ERA and leads the American League in strikeouts with 37, including 27 over the last three starts.

On the first part of this episode, I spoke with Joe Saunders, a writer over at Rays Colored Glasses to breakdown the pitching matchups and to take a look at one rookie in Tim Beckham, who is off to a great start for Tampa Bay at shortstop. Here are some of the other topics we discussed:

  • What has been the difference for Tampa Bay over their five game win streak?
  • The impact of having James Loney back in the lineup
  • Chris Archer’s maturation into one of the best pitchers in the AL
  • How will Kevin Cash line up his bullpen when Jake McGee returns?
  • Takeaways from the first Yankees-Rays series
  • Pitching Matchup Breakdown
  • Nathan Karns (Tonight’s Rays starter) with the most walks in the AL
  • Adam Warren (Tonight’s Yankees starter) having trouble with the crooked inning
  • Jake Odorizzi (Tuesday’s Rays starter) with a high groundball rate this season
  • Chase Whitley (Tuesday’s Yankees starter) getting the spot start to push Tanaka back a day
  • Drew Smyly with great success at Yankee Stadium in his career
  • Masahiro Tanaka (Wednesday’s Yankees starter) generating more swings and misses n his last two outings
  • Rays Players To Watch: Kevin Kiermaier and Tim Beckham
  • Yankees Players To Watch: Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran

In the second part of this episode, Wayne Cavadi of Yanks Go Yard and co-editor of Grading On The Curve to recap the Subway Series win, discuss A-Rod’s upcoming “milestone”, the struggles of Carlos Beltran, and a look at some of the Yankees minor leaguers with Wayne covering Scranton’s series this week against Gwinnett.

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