Rays aim for series sweep against Yankees (May 21, 2017)
TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Rays will continue to look for big things from their bats as they aim for a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field.
The Rays (23-22) hit three home runs in a powerful display of offense during a 9-5 win over the Yankees on Saturday.
The top of the Rays order -- Corey Dickerson, Kevin Kiermaier and Evan Longoria -- went 6-for-12 with three home runs and six RBIs.
"This team is really impressive on the offensive side," Dickerson said. "We've got a lot of guys on this team that can swing that bat and have good track records. We trust every guy that goes up to the plate that he's going to do something special up there."
The Yankees (24-16) will look to CC Sabathia to be the stopper and snap their current three-game skid. Sabathia threw five scoreless innings against the Rays on April 4 and hopes to build off a recent strong start against the Kansas City Royals when gave up five hits in 6 2/3 scoreless innings.
"(That start) was pretty important for him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said to the New York Daily News. "He'd been pretty frustrated with the way things had been going, not being able to pitch like he was early in the season."
Sabathia has had an up-and-down record against the Rays, going 15-14 in 42 career starts.
Tampa Bay will turn to Chris Archer in hopes that their ace can bounce back from a disastrous start against the Cleveland Indians last week. Archer gave up five runs in the first inning of that game but battled his way through five innings.
"I like what (Archer) said after that start," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "He talked about how he put the first inning behind him during that game and battled through. So I don't think he needs to make any mechanical adjustments or anything like that. He knows what he didn't do well."
Archer's last start at Tropicana Field was easily his best of the season when he struck out 11 in eight scoreless innings against the Royals. His career record against the Yankees is 6-5 with a 2.63 ERA in 14 starts.
Cash said the Rays' recent strong performances have given the team confidence that they can stay in the AL East race for the remainder of the season.
"Look, I think this team has shown throughout the course of the year that they believe they are a good team," Cash said. "We all have to play our role, but they are very confident.
"I think the road trip, when we left our last homestand, I don't think there were too many happy people getting on the flight. They moved past that and played really complete baseball and won games.
"I don't know how big any series is in mid-May, but obviously you're playing against New York, who is in first place, you want to play well and that's what we've done."
