New York @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( Sep 13, 2010 ) NY Yankees 0, Tampa Bay 1
Which team would blink first?
That was the story of Monday's series opener as the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays battled for first place in the AL East.
It was New York which blinked as Tampa Bay's Reid Brignac belted a walk-off homer in the 11th inning to lift the Rays into first place with a 1-0 victory on Monday.
The two teams meet again Tuesday night at Tropicana Field with Tampa Bay leading New York by one half game.
Monday's contest certainly lived up to its advanced billing. Not only was the division lead at stake, but consideration for the AL Cy Young Award was also up for debate.
Neither CC Sabathia nor David Price blinked.
The two left-handers both pitched eight shutout innings on Monday. Price allowed three hits and two walks while Sabathia surrendered a pair of hits and two walks. Sabathia won the strikeout duel, 9-4.
Neither team advanced a runner to third base while the starters were in and both got out of a bit of trouble in the eighth inning.
The rest of the game was left to the bullpens and Sergio Mitre was the only one to falter as he surrendered a home run to the first batter he faced.
New York has lost four straight games, three of them in walk-off fashion.
Ironically, Brignac would never have been in the game had Carl Crawford not been ejected for arguing a third strike call in the ninth inning.
On Tuesday, Ivan Nova makes his pitch for a spot on the postseason roster and hopes to vault the Yankees back into the AL East lead. A rookie from the Dominican Republic, Nova has been effective in all four starts for the Yankees.
Nova has allowed eight runs in 24 innings for New York, which has won his last three starts.
The Rays will go with veteran Matt Garza (14-8), who is no stranger to big games. Garza is just 1-3 lifetime against the Yankees, but carries a 7-2 mark at home into the contest.
Garza was hammered by the Boston Red Sox in his last outing, but had won three straight decisions before that. He threw a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers on July 26.
While Nova's spot in the rotation is uncertain, the Yankees announced on Monday that Javier Vazquez would return to the bullpen and miss his next turn.
New York plans to activate veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte from the disabled list on Sunday. Pettitte is scheduled to make his final rehab start Tuesday in the Eastern League playoffs.
The two teams wrap up the series on Wednesday. They'll play four more games at Yankee Stadium next week.
New York has been in first place for all but two days since the middle of June. Monday was the first 1-0 walk-off victory in Tampa Bay's history.