The best team in baseball is in The Bronx tonight and it’s not the Yankees, not by 8 ½ games.
That’s the lead the Rays (55-33) own over the third-place Yankees (47-42) heading into a two-game series that starts tonight at Yankee Stadium (7:05, YES, WCBS). Joe Girardi said he believes the key was an offseason deal Tampa Bay struck with the Twins.
“I thought it all started when they made their trades for (Matt) Garza and (Jason) Bartlett,” Girardi said.
“I had only seen [Garza] pitch a little bit, but I had seen him pitch and I watched some of his games because I had to do games for FOX, and I was impressed. I always liked the way that Jason Bartlett played.”
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Garza has been a key addition to the Rays pitching staff, but Scott Kazmir is still the ace. Kazmir will take the mound tonight against Andy Pettitte.
“Their young pitchers have grown up, and they know how to pitch at this level now,” Girardi said. “And Kazmir has been excellent since he’s gotten here. But they added to that, and that’s how they improved so much. They’ve always been able to hit the baseball, they’ve always been athletic, but what they really added to was their pitching staff. ”
Kazmir understands that a two-game sweep would not only boost confidence, but expand the Rays lead in the standings over the Yanks to double digits.
“It’s a weird series,” Kazmir said. “We’ve got two games over there. So if we win both of those it’s going to be huge for us going into the break to beat them two in a row.”
The Devil Rays were 23-59 in their franchise history before the Rays split a four-game series in early April. The Yankees did not know then that more had changed than the name on the jerseys.
“We’ve always said that when the Rays start coming of age and start to mature, they’ve got some young arms that are learning how to pitch,” Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi said. “We always knew they were going to be a tough team to beat, because they can definitely play the game. Sometimes you could beat them on some mistakes, but they don’t make mistakes anymore.”
Tonight’s Pitching Matchup:
Yankees LHP Andy Pettitte (9-6, 4.22 ERA) After a dominating four-start stretch where Pettitte went 4-0 and allowed three earned runs over 27 innings, he was knocked around by the Red Sox in his previous start. Pettitte allowed six runs (five earned) in 4 2/3 as the Yanks lost the series opener 7-0 to the Red Sox.
Rays LHP Scott Kazmir (7-3, 2.63 ERA) Kazmir has made nine starts against the Yankees in his career going 3-3 with a 2.68 ERA. In his only appearance against them this year he threw six shutout innings in the Rays 5-2 win in St. Petersburg on May 15.
with Yankees.com and Rays.com