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NEW YORK -- The last two times the New York Yankees have faced the Tampa Bay Rays, significant events occurred to change the course of their season.In the final weekend of July, the Yankees were swept in a three-game series at Tampa Bay. They had already traded Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs and the sweep convinced general manager Brian Cashman to go into sell mode and trade off three other veterans and go with younger players.On Aug. 12, Alex Rodriguez had an RBI double in his last game for the Yankees. Rodriguezs exit came a week after Gary Sanchez was promoted and a day before Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin joined the team and homered in their first at-bats.Since those weekends, the Yankees have remained in the race for both the division and wild-card spot and they will look to gain more ground Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series with the Rays at Yankee Stadium.Weve been playing extremely well, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Weve been playing playoff baseball since about August 1 because we knew the importance of those games. I think we were .500 after the first four months and we knew that wasnt going to cut it.The Yankees have won four in a row and 10 of their last 14 games after completing a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays with Wednesdays 2-0 victory. Bryan Mitchell pitched effectively into the sixth inning in his season debut, Starlin Castro hit his 20th home run of the season and Brian McCann added an RBI single.Those events helped the Yankees get within 2 1/2 games of the Baltimore Orioles for the wild card. New York is 4 1/2 out of first place but now trails the Boston Red Sox and not Toronto.Right now, were playing really good baseball, McCann said. Were excited for this last month.The Rays (60-79) are starting an 11-game road trip that could impact the AL East as they play four in New York, three in Toronto and three in Baltimore. The Rays are 26-33 against divisional foes after Corey Dickerson had an RBI triple in the seventh inning of Wednesdays 7-6 win over Baltimore.Its going to be a good atmosphere, said Alex Cobb, who starts for Tampa Bay on Thursday. The Yankees are still in (the playoff race) and they are playing good baseball. This series is big for us too. The last month of the season is big for the organization as a whole. This is a chance for us to finish strong and build some momentum for next year.Kevin Kiermaier and Nick Franklin homered for Tampa Bay, which has 184 this season, the fourth-highest total in team history.Despite the power, the Rays have a .244 batting average, a .310 on-base percentage and a .737 OPS. Those numbers cost hitting coach Derek Shelton his job on Tuesday and Chad Mottola will take over Thursday.Evan Longoria is 5-for-33 in his last nine games but often does well against the Yankees. He was 7-for-11 with six RBI in Tampa Bays last trip to New York and is batting .304 (14-for-46) in 12 games against the Yankees this season.Longoria has 74 hits and 47 RBI, tops among visiting players at the current Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009. His 15 home runs are tied with Boston designated hitter David Ortiz only behind Jose Bautista.CC Sabathia will start the series opener. He has pitched well in recent outings by posting a 2.29 ERA in his last three starts and allowing three runs or less in five of six starts. Sabathia will make his 461st career start in the American League, surpassing Bobo Newsom for 22nd place in league history.Sabathias last start was a tough-luck loss in Baltimore on Saturday and it marked the second straight time the Yankees did not score for him. Sabathia did his part, allowing two runs (one earned) and six hits in two innings while working out of a few jams.I didnt have much. Just trying to make pitches when I had to, and I was able to do that for the most part. But it was a struggle today.The left-hander is 14-14 with a 3.79 ERA in 40 starts vs. Tampa Bay. As a Yankee, he is 7-13 with a 4.35 ERA in 29 games against the Rays.Sabathia is 2-8 with a 5.20 ERA at home this season and one of those wins was against Tampa Bay on Aug. 12Cobb makes his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery. The first outing went well as he retired the final 10 hitters in his five-inning outing against Toronto while allowing two runs and four hits.I was happy in the fact that I felt back to competitive nature on the mound, Cobb said. It wasnt being cautious, wasnt thinking about my mechanics or injury possibilities. I was just out there, wanting to get outs and I felt the groove of the game again.Cobb is 5-2 with a 1.93 ERA in 10 starts against the Yankees. 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The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. Cheap NFL Jerseys China . Detroit and Boston are deadlocked, 1-1, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be forgiven if he was caught rationalizing instead of dissecting how his club could blow a 5-1 lead late in Game 2.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The New York Yankees have placed third baseman Kevin Youkilis on the 15-day disabled list because of a back injury and optioned right-hander Adam Warren to Triple-A Scranrton/Wilkes-Barre. The moves were announced on Friday before the start of a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees also purchased the contracts of right-hander Chris Bootcheck and outfielder Thomas Neal from Triple-A, and transferred shortstop Eduardo Nunez (left oblique strain) too the 60-day DL.dddddddddddd This is the 14th time the Yankees have used the DL and the second time with Youkilis, who missed 30 games with a lumbar spine sprain before returning to the lineup on May 31. The three-time All-Star, who signed a one-year, $12 million contract with New York as a free agent on December 14, has played in only 28 games and is batting .219 with two home runs and eight RBIs. Its the eighth time Youkilis has been on the DL in his 10-year career. ' ' '