FRONT RUNNERS: Travis Hafner (right) high-fives Robinson Cano after they scored on a ninth-inning, go-ahead single by Ichiro Suzuki in the Yankees’ 4-3 victory over the Rays last night. (AP)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays played the first game of their existence here in 1998, and for their first 15 years, they have shared just one common denominator with the Yankees: Both teams played in the American League East.
Here in year 16, though, the division rivals never have seemed more alike. Which leads to this conclusion: If they are to surprise the baseball world and return to the playoffs, the Yankees are going to have to beat the Rays at their own game.
They did just that last night at Tropicana Field, when Ichiro Suzuki’s two-run, ninth-inning single proved the difference in the Yankees’ 4-3 victory over the Rays in a taut pitchers’ duel at Tropicana Field.
The first step of this model, however, is terrific starting pitching, and the Yankees received that in what looked like a considerable mismatch: Their Phil Hughes against reigning AL Cy Young Award winner David Price, who faced a profoundly unimposing Yankees lineup.
“I felt like I had to pitch well,” said Hughes, who gave up two runs in seven innings, striking out six and walking two. “We knew Price wasn’t going to continue the way he’s been throwing. We knew he was going to be tough.”
Price entered the game with a woeful 6.26 ERA, yet it wasn’t shocking that he put up his best start of the season, pitching into the ninth, against a Yankees group that featured Eduardo Nunez hitting second and Ben Francisco fifth. Yeesh.
As it turned out, the visitors merited considerable credit for grinding out four runs without the benefit of an extra-base hit and dropping Price’s 2013 record to 0-2. David Robertson threw a perfect eighth for the win, and Mariano Rivera shrugged off Evan Longoria’s leadoff homer to finish the game for his sixth save.
This all became relevant thanks to Hughes, who looked to be in a mound of trouble when he needed 32 pitches to complete the first inning. The Rays scored just one run, though — the key was when Hughes ended an 11-pitch battle with Longoria by getting him to foul tip a slider that Chris Stewart caught — and rather than feel enervated, Hughes built up strength and confidence. All six of his strikeouts came on breaking pitches — he purposely threw more off-speed stuff, knowing that the Rays’ hitters are aggressive.
“For him to throw 110 pitches and pitch into the seventh inning, that was impressive to me,” manager Joe Girardi said. Hughes has totaled 14 innings and four earned runs in his last two starts after two poor games to begin the season.
Granted, no one is going to mistake either of these clubs for the other. When I told a Tampa Bay official before the game of my belief the two teams never have been more similar, he raised his eyebrows, smirked and noted the Rays aren’t about to make a $13 million-or-so pickup late in spring training, like the Yankees did with Vernon Wells.
But given how different these clubs historically have been, how Tampa native George Steinbrenner would throw a fit if the Yankees lost even a Grapefruit League game to the fledgling team, their matching qualities stand out.
The Yankees, crushed by injuries and handcuffed by self-imposed spending restraints, have taken on retreads like Wells, Travis Hafner, Ben Francisco and Brennan Boesch. They are the sort of buy-low entities the Rays know well, having dabbled in markets for down-on-their-luck veterans like Casey Kotchman, Manny Ramirez (who lasted less than a month in 2011 before retiring due to a failed drug test) and, this year, James Loney and Luke Scott.
Consequently, the Rays are accustomed to playing lower-scoring games, and we already have seen that with the Yankees. Though they have scored 93 runs in their 19 games, nearly five runs per game, that total is skewed by a few blowouts. They have scored four runs or fewer in 13 of their games. They indeed have needed to diversify their offense, as they did masterfully last night.
And there is one other dynamic by which the Yankees and Rays can now relate to each other. The Rays live perpetually as underdogs. Despite their success since 2008, having won an AL pennant, two AL East titles and an AL wild card in that span, Tampa Bay’s budget leaves the club vulnerable. The Yankees suddenly find themselves as underdogs, too, a status from which they seemed to have drawn strength.
They prevailed in the sort of game they will have to win to return to their usual destination in October. They played like the Rays to beat the Rays — fittingly enough, behind the strength of a young, homegrown starting pitcher.
kdavidoff@nypost.com