New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays Square Off, Do-or-Die for Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays' four-game series against the New York Yankees could have the most impact of any series this season. As the team enters their final series going into the All-Star break, they are four games behind the Yankees and a half game behind the Boston Red Sox.

The Rays' season could come down to how the they fare in this series.

The Rays will be playing in front of a national audience as everyone counts down Derek Jeter’s chase for 3,000 hits. There will be a lot of attention and speculation as to what the team will do as they are just outside the postseason race at this point in the year.

Of course, mathematically the Rays are far from being eliminated from postseason play. However, in both of the Rays' American League East championship seasons, they either led the division or were two games back at this point in the year.

In contrast, the Rays were five games out of the division lead in 2009 and finished that season 19 games back.

The best-case scenario for the Rays would be a four-game sweep bringing them to a tie with the Yankees, and potentially tied for the division lead pending the Red Sox' performance in their series with the Baltimore Orioles.

The upcoming series is also important as the trading deadline is steadily approaching. The Rays are normally seen as sellers at the deadline, but may not make too many moves if they feel that they are realistically in a position to contend for the postseason.

However, if it looks like the Rays cannot compete with the top of the AL East, then they may start selling pieces of value for prospects and begin looking to make another charge for the postseason in 2012. This strategy is frustrating to a lot of Rays fans since the team doesn’t spend the money or frankly have the money of their divisional counterparts.

Right or wrong, it has become the way the Rays do business and has led them to two AL East titles and a World Series appearance.

Unfortunately for the Rays, their current record would lead the AL Central, AL West or NL Central. It makes another argument for realignment and a more balanced schedule due to the AL East being home to the three best American League teams.

It may be the midpoint on the MLB calendar, but for the Rays it will have the feel of a pennant race.

Jamal Wilburg is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.

You can follow him on Twitter @JWilburg