Yanks And Rays Open Up Critical Wild Card Series In The Bronx

Could this be the series that finally ends the Yankees' season? Tonight in the Bronx, the Yankees open up a three-game series against the Wild Card leading Tampa Bay Rays. These three games will either keep the Yankees in the race and bring them closer to pulling off this miracle run, or it will end their playoff hopes all together.

The Yankees are coming off an emotional loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, on a day will with celebrating and remembrance of Mariano Rivera, baseball's greatest closer, as he prepares to ride off into the sunset after the final pitch of the 2013 season is thrown.

With just six games remaining this season, the Yankees need every win they can get in order to get to the postseason. On Monday, the Yanks announced that they would have to go through these final six games without their apparent ace CC Sabathia, who was shut down for the rest of the season because of a Grade 2 strain in his left hamstring.

Tonight's Lineup vs Tampa Bay:

Suzuki CF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Reynolds 1B
Nunez 3B
Wells RF
Ryan SS
Stewart C
Kuroda RHP

Pitching Preview:

On Sunday, Andy Pettitte made his final home start at Yankee Stadium after announcing on Friday that he, too, would retire at the end of this season. Pettitte was great on the mound, taking a no-hitter into the 6th inning until it was taken away by a homerun from a September call-up.

Today against the Rays, Hiroki Kuroda will try one more time to turn his season around after going on a harsh losing streak since mid-August. Since going eight-innings against the Los Angeles Angels on August 12th, he's 0-6 with an ERA over six.

Although he dropped his last decision, Kuroda put together a quality start when he gave up three runs over six innings to the Toronto Blue Jays last Thursday.

"It was gutsy; he was in trouble every inning," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Kuroda's performance. "He did a really good job of minimizing the damage."

Taking the mound for the Rays tonight is one of their best young pitchers, left-hander Matt Moore, who is 15-4 with a 3.34 ERA, with two of his wins coming against the Yankees in four starts against them this season.

"Beating them is going to worsen their chances of getting in, so we can kill a couple birds with that one stone," Moore said of this critical series starting tonight.

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