Yanks Go Yard Radio Show: Yankees-Rays (9/20-9/22)

On last night’s Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, we looked ahead to the Yankees final series of the season at Tropicana Field

At the beginning of last night’s Yanks Go Yard Radio Show, I started the episode by talking about the New York Yankees (77-72) being swept at Fenway Park in a four game series against the Boston Red Sox. This is something that hasn’t happened for the Yankees since 1990.

The story of the series was the bullpen blowing three leads and Hanley Ramirez hitting four home runs against Yankees pitching. The game that Joe Girardi should take the most heat for is Thursday night because he used Dellin Betances for a third day in a row and it backfired.

Now, the Yankees find themselves out of the running in the AL East and 4.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with 13 games to go. Tonight, they continue their road trip at Tropicana Field when they begin a three game series against the Tampa Bay Rays (64-85).

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Lately, Kevin Cash’s team has done a good job of playing spoiler in the AL East. In their last two series, they won two out of three against the Blue Jays and split a four game series with the Orioles (both series on the road).

Right now, the problem for the Rays has been that their offense has been ravaged by injuries. This is a team that is currently without first baseman Logan Morrison, shortstop Matt Duffy, utility player Nick Franklin, and outfielder Steven Souza Jr.

That being said, the Rays have hit 29 home runs this month, which is second in the American League. Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier is hitting .323 with five home runs in his last 16 games. Plus, third baseman Evan Longoria has four homers in his last 17 games.

On the mound, the Rays have gotten good starts consistently by Jake Odorizzi (6-1, 2.68 ERA in last 12 starts) and Drew Smyly (5-1 in his last 11 starts). In the bullpen, closer Alex Colome has 34 saves in 36 opportunities in his first full season as the closer.

To talk more about the Rays, my guest on last night’s Yanks Go Yard Radio Show was the editor of Rays Colored Glasses, Althea Pashman. Althea gave her take on the injuries to the Rays offense and how many teams she thinks will make the playoffs in the AL East. Here are the other topics we discussed:

• Rays playing spoilers in September
• Alexei Ramirez making a good impression to be on the roster next year?
• Corey Dickerson’s first year in Tampa a success?
• Pitching Matchup Breakdown
• Drew Smyly (Tonight’s Rays starter) hasn’t lost since July 18
• Michael Pineda (Tonight’s Yankees starter) has bad numbers this year against Tampa
• Evaluating Alex Cobb’s first three starts of the season (Tomorrow’s Rays starter)
• Masahiro Tanaka’s extreme success with the groundball outs in Boston (Tomorrow’s Yankees starter)
• Blake Snell (Thursday’s Rays starter) having trouble finishing five innings
• Luis Cessa (Thursday’s Yankees starter) has gone five innings or more in six straight starts
• Yankees hitters to watch: Gary Sanchez and Billy Butler
• Rays hitters to watch: Corey Dickerson and Brad Miller
• Biggest need the Rays have to address in 2017?

Next: Yankees Need To Trust Refsnyder As An Infielder

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