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Home team rules in Rays-Yankees series

By Larry Fleisher, The Sports Xchange
Giancarlo Stanton and the New York Yankees face the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Giancarlo Stanton and the New York Yankees face the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

NEW YORK -- The season series between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays is even at six wins apiece, but when the teams get together, the outcome often is based on the venue.

The teams will reconvene their unique season series Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

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The home team is 10-2 so far.

The Yankees swept a two-game series April 2-3 and won the first three games of a four-game set June 14-17. Since then, the Rays have won six of the last seven meetings by taking two series at home.

Tampa Bay posted a 3-1 victory in its last trip to the Bronx on June 17 and then swept a three-game series, capped by Jake Bauers' game-winning homer in the 12th inning, on June 24.

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The Rays won two one-run games while Masahiro Tanaka pitched a complete game in New York's 4-0 victory on July 24. The Rays have won four one-run games against the Yankees this season, and the last series marked the first three-game series without a New York homer since Sept. 2-4, 2016 at Baltimore.

Although the Yankees struggled in the last two visits to Tampa Bay, they are 13-3 against the Rays at home in the last two seasons and have won the last 12 home series between the teams at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees come into their latest encounter with the Rays looking to rebound from an 8-5 loss to the New York Mets on Monday. Miguel Andujar hit a two-run homer, but Luis Severino lasted a season-low four innings and the Yankees fell 10 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the AL East.

Despite losing for only the second time in eight games since getting swept in a four-game series at Fenway, the Yankees face their largest deficit since finishing the 2016 season, 10 games out.

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"Keep going baby, seriously," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the large deficit. "That's all you can do right now. You really can't get caught up in that. We're going through a tough stretch for us, being a little beat up, all these games in a row and I feel like the guys are playing well and we've been able to rack up some wins here of late and that's all we can control."

This time they will face the Rays with Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge both on the disabled list.

Sanchez has begun doing some running and could start hitting as he recovers from a strained right groin. Judge is three weeks into recovering from a fractured right wrist and could start swinging a bat in the next few days.

The Rays head into New York with eight wins in their last 13 games. They were unable to complete a sweep in Toronto when they managed six hits in a 2-1 loss on Sunday.

"We got pitched tough," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Still not clicking offensively like we're capable of."

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Willy Adames drove in Tampa Bay's lone run with an RBI single and is .419 (13-for-31) in his last nine games. Bauers went 0-for-10 during the weekend, and is mired in a 6-for-34 slump but is 6-for-19 in Tampa Bay's last five wins over the Yankees.

J.A. Happ will make his third start for the Yankees and is hoping it goes as well as the first two.

On July 29 against Kansas City, he allowed one run and three hits in six innings of a 6-3 win. After missing a turn because of hand, foot and mouth and disease, Happ returned Thursday against Texas and allowed three runs and four hits in six innings while getting nine strikeouts and doing so after the bullpen was taxed in Boston and Chicago.

"I knew that we needed some innings," Happ said. "I did what I could out there. Would have like to (have) gone one or two more."

Happ is 3-4 with a 4.73 ERA in 16 games (15 starts) against the Rays. He was 0-1 with a 2.53 ERA in two starts against the Rays with Toronto this season.

Hunter Wood will be the starter or opener for the Rays, though he likely will not pitch much beyond the second inning. In his six "starts", Wood has not pitched more than two innings.

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Wood's last appearance in this role was Thursday against the Baltimore Orioles when he allowed three runs and five hits in two innings.

Wood is 0-0 with a 3.91 ERA in 15 appearances and owns a 4.35 ERA in his starts. He faced the Yankees on July 23 when he allowed one run and two hits in two innings.

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