Rays at Yankees

The New York Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays tonight at 7:00PM. Here are the pregame notes and lineup via Peter Abraham's Lohud Yankees Blog.

With a win tonight, the Yankees will have won eight of their last nine series.

Andy Pettitte is tied with CC Sabathia for the team lead in wins with five, he hopes he takes the lead tonight. He has been bothered by a bad back and given up a lot of hits and walks his last couple of starts but somehow survived, he is hoping to do better tonight though.

Andy Sonnanstine has given up 78 hits and 16 walks in 56 innings this year. He is 3-1 with a 6.75 era in his last 4 starts which is an improvement. The Yankees need to make him throw pitches and hit the good ones they get.

The Yankees have committed an error in five straight games.

The Yankees are 17-11 at home after starting out so-so there.

The best thing about the Yankees this year is their never say die attitude. They lead baseball with 20 come from behind wins and have won 11 games in their last at bat which leads the American league.

The Yankees are 20-0 when holding opponents to three runs or less. They are the only team undefeated in this category, so if the Yankees get the pitching which they do more often then not they will win.

If they ever get Wang going watch out with him, CC and AJ, and Andy and Joba on the backend—that is a great staff. I think Joba is getting better and better and him being upset with his sixth inning yesterday is a good sign of that because he felt he should of gone at least sevem.

Nick Swisher has 11 home runs; he did not get that until June 30th of last year.

I love Swisher's personality and intensity but Nady is just a better player and Swisher can really help this team, coming off the bench and playing outfield and first base when guys need a rest. It will be interesting to see what happens when Nady does come back.

Yankees lineup

Jeter(SS)
Damon(LF)
Big Tex(1B)
A-rod(3B)
Cano(2B)
Posada(C)
Matsui(DH)
Swisher(RF)
Cabrera(CF)