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Fragile Yankees continue series against first-place Rays

Sep 3, 2008 - 12:31 PM NY Yankees (74-64) at Tampa Bay (84-52), 7:10 pm EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- The Tampa Bay Rays lost a game they could afford to lose while the New York Yankees bought themselves one more day of believing they could pull off a miracle.

Clinging to their brittle playoff hopes, the fragile Yankees look to take the second straight contest of a three-game set against the American League East leading Rays on Wednesday at Tropicana Field.

The Yankees have won two in a row and are taking small steps toward becoming relevant again in the wild card race.

The Boston Red Sox (81-57), though, hold a seven-game advantage over New York in that race with less than a month remaining, and the Chicago White Sox (77-61) and Minnesota (77-61), who are tied for the AL Central lead, are both three games ahead of the Yankees.

Carl Pavano (2-0, 3.27 ERA) takes the mound for New York, looking to continue his surprising production in his third start this season and fifth since July of 2005.

The righthander, who has made just 21 starts since inking a four-year, $40 million deal, has been plagued by injuries in his brutal tenure with the Yankees, but couldn't have come back at a better time.

Joe Girardi's starting rotation has been without Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Chien-Ming Wang for most of the season, and Joba Chamberlain's recent injury will keep him in the bullpen for the rest of 2008. In addition, Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson have been nothing short of frustrating while failing to act as band-aids to a bleeding staff.

The Yankees activated Chamberlain from the disabled list before the opener and he worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his first appearance since August 4.

Tampa Bay, however, has been lifted by its young rotation all season and Edwin Jackson (11-8, 3.81) has been a contributing cog.

The 24-year-old righthander has won six of his last seven decisions and has held opponents to three runs or less in that span.