ST. PETERSBURG — As they bring their season-starting, record-threatening rampage into a 2nd month with a majors-best 26-6 record, the Rays now turn their attention to a Yankees group besieged by injuries and bogged down at the bottom of the American League East at 17-15.
But when they fulfill Friday night to open a three-game weekend series at Tropicana Field — the very first of 7 video games in 10 days with a return engagement next week in New York — they anticipate the very same level of strength that has actually marked a lot of their conferences in recent years.
“It’s always going to be heated,” Rays pitcher Josh Fleming said. “Obviously, you get the AL East, the best division in baseball, and you get a team with the Yankees who’ve always been seen as the top dog against the guys that are actually the top dog right now.
“It’ll be heated, for sure. I don’t think to the extent where we’re going to be throwing at each other, but it’s always intense any time we play the Yankees.”
From a list of conflicts and dispute, the most remarkable minutes came throughout the 2020 season.
First in a Sept. 1 video game, when then-Yankees better Aroldis Chapman tossed a 101 miles per hour fastball near the head of the Rays’ Mike Brosseau, triggering supervisor Kevin Cash’s well-known hazard of having “a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 miles an hour.”
Revenge was available in the 5th and choosing video game of the neutral-site AL Division Series, when Brosseau struck a consent homer in the 8th inning off Chapman, and the Rays went on to remove the Yankees. As their postgame event spilled into the dugout in San Diego, they played, “New York, New York.”
Second baseman Brandon Lowe, the Rays’ most experienced position gamer, said the chippiness in between the groups is an item of how competitive they are every year.
“It’s two really good teams that are in the same division,” he said. “We’ve had to play each other, it feels like, 40 or 50 times a year previously. We knew that we always had to go through each other.
“And that was, I think, the biggest thing that created so much friction and so much heat is that both teams had aspirations of going to World Series and winning their division. And we were both extremely good teams. So, it was really a battle back and forth every single time we played against each other.”
Since the Rays initially got good in 2008, they have actually won the AL East 4 times and made the playoffs 8; the Yankees have actually been department champs 5 times and played in 11 postseasons. The Rays have actually been to 2 World Series, losing in 2008 and 2020; the Yankees have actually been to one, winning in 2009.
Even with the Rays 9 video games ahead in the standings — a margin they’ve held just one other day given that 2008 — the level of competitors must be high up on the field.
“I think everybody is excited to play against the Yankees,” Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena said by means of group interpreter Manny Navarro.
They’re thrilled in the stands, too, as the Rays — in anticipation of crowds approaching or surpassing 30,000 — have actually resumed the upper deck for the weekend.
“Hopefully, it’s a lot of Rays fans; we’ll see,” Cash said. “It’s good for us. It’s good for baseball. I’m glad that fans are going to be, in theory, coming out for this weekend series, because I feel like the way we’ve performed it’s justified to have some good crowds.”
The Yankees’ struggles this season have actually been an outcome of injuries, as they have 12 gamers (and more than $150 countless income, double the Rays’ overall payroll) sidelined, consisting of numerous crucial pitchers and lineup anchors Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, in addition to Josh Donaldson.
Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone, after keeping in mind how well the Rays have actually begun (“They’re playing like the best team in the league right now”), said Wednesday in New York that his group needs to conquer its own issues, such as ranking 27th in the majors in average (.228), 24th in runs (125) and 23rd in OPS (.678). The Rays lead in all 3 classifications, at .278, 210 and .876.
“Being banged up, we’ve had our challenges here a little bit offensively the last couple of weeks after getting off to a pretty, I thought, consistent and solid start in that department,” Boone said.
“So, we’ve got to find a way to generate some runs here, especially as we’re waiting on some guys to get back. … We’ll see. I think we have a chance to be really good. But that’s still all it is right now.”
General supervisor Brian Cashman likewise made a pitch for persistence: “Don’t count us out,” he said Wednesday. “Don’t give up on us.”
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