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Yankees-Rays Preview

Jul 26, 2009 - 10:50 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

New York (59-38) at Tampa Bay (54-44), 7:08 p.m. EDT

The New York Yankees took advantage of a favorable schedule coming out of the All-Star break to take over first place the AL East. They now try to carry that momentum to the road as the competition gets a bit tougher.

The Yankees look to win for the 10th time in 11 games when they open a nine-game swing Monday night with three against the Tampa Bay Rays, who are hoping to make up some ground when they open a 10-game homestand.

After being three games behind division-leading Boston at the break, New York (60-38) swept a three-game series over AL Central-leading Detroit before taking six of seven from lowly Baltimore and Oakland.

With Sunday's 7-5 win over the Athletics, the Yankees moved 2 1/2 games up on the Red Sox. Maintaining that lead won't be easy with 19 of their next 26 games on the road.

After facing the Rays (54-45), who have won 20 of 25 at Tropicana Field, New York has four games against the Chicago White Sox and two at Toronto before returning home for four versus Boston.

"We're right where we want to be," said reliever Phil Hughes, who has not allowed a run in his last 23 1-3 innings. "We have to go on the road and expect to win. We want to go out there and win every single game. And really, with the guys in this room, we don't feel like there's any reason why we shouldn't."

While New York looks to pull away from the rest of the East, Tampa Bay hopes to tighten the division race.

Following this series, the Rays, who are 6 1/2 games back of the Yankees and four behind wild card-leading Boston, have four against Kansas City before two against the Red Sox.

"This is a crucial homestand," Pat Burrell said after Sunday's 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays. "I think it will dictate a lot, especially with the (July 31 trade) deadline coming up. If we have a real good homestand, I mean real good, we're going to be in a good place."

It will likely be tough for Burrell and the Rays to produce much offense in the opener against A.J. Burnett (9-4, 3.74 ERA), who is finally starting to live up to the five-year, $82.5 million contract he signed in the offseason.

After going 4-3 with a 4.89 ERA in his first 12 starts for New York, Burnett is 5-1 with a 1.93 ERA in his last seven outings. In Wednesday's 6-4 win over Baltimore, the right-hander allowed four hits over six shutout innings before surrendering two runs and being lifted after seven.

In two starts against the Rays this season, Burnett is 1-0 with a 3.21 ERA.

Tampa Bay's James Shields (6-6, 3.70), meanwhile, seeks his first win since beating the New York Mets on June 20. He had another solid outing on Wednesday against the White Sox, allowing two runs and four hits in 6 2-3 innings, but the Rays went on to lose 4-3.

The right-hander is winless in his last six and is 1-2 in his last nine, despite posting a 4.12 ERA in those contests. A lack of run support has kept Shields from accumulating victories, as he has been backed by an average of 3.36 runs in his last nine outings.

That was the same story for Shields against New York in 2008.

Shields, who has yet to face the Yankees this season, went 1-2 with a 1.77 ERA in three starts against them a year ago. He received one total run of support in the losses.