{"id":5945,"date":"2010-07-30T11:30:33","date_gmt":"2010-07-30T16:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=5945"},"modified":"2010-07-30T11:26:03","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T16:26:03","slug":"friday-mlb-preview-yankees-at-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/friday-mlb-preview-yankees-at-rays-5945\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday MLB Preview – Yankees at Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The top two teams in the AL East division get ready to battle in\u00a0a three-game series this weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n

New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"New York is set to make its first trip to Tampa Bay since owner George Steinbrenner passed away on July 13.\u00a0 The former owner resided in the town and was planning on attending this series in person.\u00a0 With anticipated sell outs throughout the weekend, fans are also anticipating third baseman Alex Rodriguez hitting his 600th<\/sup><\/span> home run in the series.\u00a0 He was 3-for-17 in a four-game series in Cleveland this week and is enjoying the team\u2019s recent performance.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re winning, so this is fun,\u201d Rodriguez said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m focusing on something more important:\u00a0 a pennant race.\u201d\u00a0 The Yankees are a season-high 29 games over .500 and are 23-7-2 in series play this season.\u00a0 New York has won 17 of its last 22 games and 18 of 23.\u00a0 The team is 2-1 in dome games this season and 19-13 the last three years (+420).<\/span><\/p>\n

Yankees starting pitcher Phil Hughes is 12-3 with a 4.04 ERA in 18 starts this season, as the team has alternated wins and losses in his last three outings.\u00a0 Over that span, he has allowed 10 runs and 21 hits over 17.1 innings.\u00a0 The right-hander has made four starts this month, posting a 2-1 record and 5.79 ERA.\u00a0 Hughes tallied an impressive 11-2 record and 3.65 ERA in 16 starts prior to the All-Star break, but is 1-1 with a 7.84 ERA in two outings since.\u00a0 In seven career appearances (two starts) against the Rays, he stands at 2-1 with a 4.20 ERA, including an even 1-1 mark and 2.35 ERA at Tropicana Field.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tampa Bay will look to tie its second-high win streak of seven games tonight, as the club has won 19 of 25 games since June 30 and are a season-best 25 games over .500.\u00a0 At the 100-game mark, they are eight games ahead of last season and three ahead of their 2008 pace.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re winning games right now,\u201d said starting pitcher Wade Davis.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s good.\u00a0 We\u2019re fighting.\u201d\u00a0 The season series between the Rays and Yankees is tied at 4-4 and the home team is 40-62 all-time against the Bronx Bombers at Tropicana Field.\u00a0 Tampa Bay has been a home underdog of +100 to +125 just once this season and has posted a 11-7 mark the last three seasons (+480).<\/span><\/p>\n

Rays starting pitcher Wade Davis is 8-9 with a 4.32 ERA in 19 starts, managing to strike out 69 batters and issue 44 walks in 108.1 innings.\u00a0 The right-hander has picked up three consecutive victories, surrendering just five runs and 18 hits over 21.1 innings.\u00a0 Before his recent run, Davis had dropped five consecutive starts.\u00a0 He is 4-6 with a 4.22 ERA in 10 home starts this season, giving up 11 home runs in 59.2 frames.\u00a0 In three career outings versus the Yankees, he is 1-2 with a 4.86 ERA.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bettors must respect the road team\u2019s 43-22 record against right-handed starters in this matchup (+810), with the total being 34-27 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 41-28 versus righties this year (-290), but fall flat when playing on Fridays (2-13, -2,060).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top two teams in the AL East division get ready to battle in\u00a0a three-game series this weekend. New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays New York is set to make its first trip to Tampa Bay since owner George Steinbrenner passed away on July 13.\u00a0 The former owner resided in the town and was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[149,1500,150,1574,1513],"class_list":["post-5945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-phil-hughes","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tropicana-field","tag-wade-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5947,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5945\/revisions\/5947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}