On Deck (Game 18): Yanks at Devil Rays

Kei Igawa (1–0, 6.06 ERA) vs. Casey Fossum (1–1, 6.11 ERA)

The Yanks headed to Tampa after last night's ugly loss to the BoSox, and will take on a surprisingly competitive D-Rays team tonight in the abomination of a stadium pictured above tonight at 7:10 p.m.

In a nutshell: Kei Igawa is coming off the best start of his young career, 6 IP, 2 ER. Casey Fossum is garbage. Unfortunately, he’s garbage that has seemed to mesmerize the Yankee bats in the past. Delmon Young, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Ty Wigginton are all swinging hot bats, but the Rays haven’t been stealing bases with the regularity you’d expect. Carl Crawford, coming off 58 steals last year, only has 3 to this point.

The Rays pitching is pretty much horrible with one notable exception. Al Reyes, the last-minute choice for closer, has yet to allow an earned run, and he’s 6 for 6 in save opportunities.

Keys to the game: This is really beginning to sound like a broken record, but the Yankees need a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGGGGGG start out of Igawa. I don’t care if he gives up 10 runs, he needs to go 7 innings minimum.

D-Rays blog-of-the-day: Rays of Light