The New York Yankees are intrigued at the prospect of playing in a renovated Tropicana Field after letting the Tampa Bay Rays use their spring-training stadium as the Rays’ home last season.
New York is even more interested to see if it can solve its current slump at the plate on Friday night when the team visits the Rays for the opener of a three-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Yankees will play the Rays in the domed facility for the first time since July 11, 2024. New York won five of the six visits to the Rays last season when the games were played at Steinbrenner Field due to damage from Hurricane Milton in October 2024.
The Rays will play their fourth game at the renovated, climate-controlled ballpark, which had the tiled roof replaced and new artificial turf installed. Tampa Bay earned a 6-4 victory in its home opener Monday against the Chicago Cubs before getting outscored 15-4 in losses in the next two games.
“It did look good on TV, so we’ll see if anything looks different,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Thursday morning about the refurbished stadium. “The Rays do a really good job — their visiting clubhouse and the people who run it do a really good job. I would imagine that would remain the same, and we’ll see if there’s any nuances, differences about Tropicana Field.”
The Yankees are headed there after getting no-hit into the seventh inning and taking a 1-0 home loss to the Athletics on Thursday afternoon. Ben Rice’s single was the only hit the Yankees recorded off Jeffrey Springs and two relievers.
New York has not scored since getting two runs in the first inning off Luis Severino in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the A’s.
“We got shut down today,” Boone said Thursday after the Yankees had three at-bats with runners in scoring position. “We didn’t generate much. We didn’t hit a lot of balls on the screws at all.”
The Rays are coming of a pair of losses in which they had a combined 11 hits but went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Yandy Diaz was hitless in both games after getting a hit in nine of his first 10 contests. Junior Caminero went hitless for the second straight game on Wednesday.
“We may have gotten a little too big in certain situations instead of being true to us and just (putting) the ball in play and (creating] havoc on the basepaths,” Tampa Bay outfielder Jonny DeLuca said.
New York starters have yet to allow more than three runs in the first 12 games.
Right-hander Luis Gil will make his season debut on Friday since the Yankees need a fifth starter. Gill was 4-1 with a 3.32 ERA in 11 starts last season after missing the first four months with a strained lat.
Gil did not face the Rays last season and is 2-0 in two career starts against them. In those outings, he has held Tampa Bay to an unearned run on five hits in 11 2/3 innings.
Left-hander Steven Matz (2-0, 4.09 ERA) will make his third start as a Ray after allowing five runs on eight hits in 11 innings in a pair of wins at St. Louis and Minnesota. Matz notched eight strikeouts on Saturday in a 7-1 victory in Minnesota when he threw 97 pitches.
Matz is 3-3 with a 5.14 ERA in 11 career appearances (seven starts) against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
