NEW YORK — The Rays open their three-game series at Yankee Stadium tonight, hoping the weather cooperates and allows the teams to get in all three games.
Rain is expected all three days. The tarp was on the field at Yankee Stadium earlier Monday, but the showers have subsided enough for both teams to have batting practice on the field.
This will be Edwin Encarnacion’s first game with the Yankees. He is batting fifth as the Yankees’ starting DH.
Encarnacion, who hit a league-leading 21 homers with the Mariners, is no stranger to the AL East after playing in Toronto for so many years.
He has 18 career homers at Yankee Stadium, Encarnacion's most in any opposing ballpark, and is hitting .263/.330/.510 in 69 games at Yankee Stadium. But he's hitting just .209/.305/.422 in 130 career games against the Rays.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka has a 0.69 ERA in two starts against the Rays this season, allowing just one earned run over 13 innings with 13 strikeouts and no walks.
Here are tonight's starting lineups
RAYS
Austin Meadows DH
Tommy Pham LF
Brandon Lowe 2B
Avisail Garcia RF
Ji-Man Choi 1B
Kevin Kiermaier CF
Willy Adames SS
Joey Wendle 3B
Mike Zunino C
Yonny Chirinos RHP
YANKEES
DJ LeMahieu 3B
Luke Voit 1B
Aaron Hicks CF
Gary Sanchez C
Edwin Encarnacion DH
Didi Gregorius SS
Gleyber Torres 2B
Cameron Maybin RF
Brett Gardner LF
Masahiro Tanaka RHP
Contact Eduardo A. Encina at eencina@tampabay.com. Follow @EddieInTheYard.
