Yankees at Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays and visiting New York Yankees will send their aces to the mound Sunday afternoon for the rubber match of a three-game series between the top two teams in the American League East. Reigning AL Cy Young winner Blake Snell starts the finale for the Rays while New York’s veteran right-hander Masahiro Tanaka will try to cool off Yandy Diaz, who homered twice and drove in four runs for a 7-2 victory Saturday.
Snell is coming off one of his best starts of the season and Tanaka will try to recapture the form that led to a three-hitter with nine strikeouts at Tampa Bay last July - his lone shutout of 2018 and third of his career. The Rays recovered from the news earlier Saturday that right-hander Tyler Glasnow would be lost for 4-to-6 weeks with a right forearm strain by recording 10 hits and three homers, including a three-run blast in the eighth inning from Diaz (7-for-22, last five games). The Yankees won the series opener 4-3 on Friday to pull within one-half game of the first-place Rays, but managed just five hits in Saturday’s setback and went down 1-2-3 in each of the last three innings. New York’s Gleyber Torres had a pair of hits in the loss and is 22-for-63 in his past 16 games while teammate DJ LeMahieu homered and is batting .420 with 10 RBIs over his last 13 contests.
TV: 1:10 p.m. ET, MLB Network, YES (New York), FS Sun (Tampa Bay)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Yankees RH Masahiro Tanaka (2-3, 3.77 ERA) vs. Rays LH Blake Snell (3-3, 3.62)
Tanaka is winless in his last three outings despite posting a quality start on Tuesday when he limited Seattle to two runs over 6 1/3 innings. The 30-year-old native of Japan has struggled on the road this year, going 0-2 with a 5.17 ERA in three starts. Tommy Pham is 3-for-5 with a double and a homer versus Tanaka, who is 8-4 with a 3.72 ERA in 14 career starts against Tampa Bay.
Snell rebounded from two straight rough outings by holding Arizona to one hit over six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts in a 12-1 victory Monday. The 26-year-old Washington native has limited opponents to a .205 batting average and boasts 50 strikeouts across 37 1/3 innings overall. Gary Sanchez is 4-for-11 with three homers against Snell, who was 1-2 with a 6.08 ERA versus the Yankees last season.
WALK-OFFS
1. Tampa Bay optioned Nick Ciuffo to Triple-A Durham and fellow C Travis d’Arnaud was 0-for-3 with a walk in his debut with the club Saturday.
2. New York CF Brett Gardner is just 5-for-44 over his last 13 games to see his batting average dip to .199.
3. Rays OF-DH Avisail Garcia has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games, going 14-for-39 during that stretch after homering Saturday.