The Tampa Bay Rays and the NY Yankees are playing live on ESPN Monday night baseball and the MLB matchup in the AL East comes from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx starting up at 7 pm ET and has Chris Archer against David Phelps in the pitching matchup.
The Yankees come into the game after getting beaten down by the Red Sox and one of those games was a killer, as Masahiro Tanaka pitched a gem and gave up a home run to Mike Napoli to lose that game. The team is now 41-39 and they are hanging around in the wild card standings and the AL East as they try and make the playoffs after missing out last season. The Yankees can't score when they need to and they had Chase Whitley on the mound and lost to John Lackey in the last game and now they start off another AL East series with the Rays.
The Rays have been terrible this season and they have Archer on the mound ahead of David Price, while Phelps will pitch for the Yankees ahead of Hiroki Kuroda and the Yanks really want to end this skid. The team is ranked 20th in the league in runs and 16th in batting average and on base percentage, while the team is 17th in slugging. The team is ranked in the bottom half of the league in pitching in ERA, quality starts and BAA and a sweep of the Rays could be just what the team needs to snap out of everything.
The Orioles and Rays played on Sunday and Tampa Bay won with a game from Alex Cobb and they are trying to pull out of their big hole and while they are 10 games out, they still are within reach if they turn it around. The Rays have been dealing with tons of injuries and the rotation has been without some of its best stars. The Yankees are also dealing with injuries in the rotation, including to CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda. The Rays and Yankees are playing on ESPN on Monday and the Yanks have this home series before heading on a very long road trip into the All-Star break, playing at the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees and Rays will next play in mid-August before matching up again in September and by then the teams likely will know whether have any playoff chance or not.
Check here for the Tampa Bay Rays and the NY Yankees live coverage from ESPN.
