One of the drawbacks to being a Yankee fan is having to watch the home nine play the Devil Rays nineteen times a year. This year things have been especially bad as the D-Rays have not only been their usual last-place selves, but have been beating up on the Yankees, holding a 7-3 advantage in the season series thus far. Here's a quick summary of those first ten games:

The Yankees and Devil Rays split a two-game series in the Bronx back in late April. In the first game, the Yankees abused Rob Bell to win 19-8 behind a Jaret Wright who did everything he could to lose. Less than a month later, Bell was put on the DL for "personal and psychological issues." He has since been activated and sent to the minors. Wright, meanwhile will make just his sixth start of the year tonight after more than three months on the disabled list with a shoulder injury.

The next night Hideo Nomo stifled the Yankee bats, while Randy Johnson gave up a pair of homers to Eduardo Perez as the Rays won 6-2. Johnson has since missed his most recent start with inflammation in his lumbar spine and is questionable for tomorrow. Nomo, meanwhile was released by the D-Rays and is currently attempting a comeback in the Yankees' system.

Two weeks later in Tampa, the Yankees hit what appeared to be their nadir. In the first game, Andy Phillips struck out five times in a 6-2 win over Scott Kazmir and has been blacklisted by Joe Torre ever since. Following the game, Brian Cashman dropped the bombshell that Tony Womack would move to left field, pushing Hideki Matsui into center field, giving the second base job to rookie Robinson Cano, and benching Bernie Williams for the forseable future.

With their new line-up in place, the Yankees proceeded to drop the next three games to the Rays by a combined score of 28-14. In the third game of the series, the Yankees skipped Randy Johnson in the rotation due to concerns over a sore groin. In his place, they started a rookie straight out of double-A Trenton named Sean Henn. Henn was rocked for six runs (five earned) on seven hits and a pair of walks in just 2 1/3 innings. After the game, Henn confessed that his knees were shaking on the mound. He was then sent down to triple-A Columbus.

When the Rays and Yankees met again in the Bronx in late June, it was Henn, back up to fill in for Kevin Brown, who took the mound. Henn faired "better" in his second big-league start, but walked seven men in just 4 2/3 innings, throwing just 47 percent of a staggering 98 pitches for strikes. Against Henn and since-jettisoned reliever Paul Quantrill, the Rays got out to a 5-0 lead behind a stellar outing by Casey Fossum, which was just enough to hold off a four-run rally by the Yankees against the since-demoted Lance Carter in the eighth.

The next night brought another Johnson-Nomo confrontation, with Nomo again coming out on top thanks to Johnson turning in one of his worst starts in recent memory (seven runs on eight hits--three of them homers by Damon Hollins, Kevin Cash and Jonny Gomes--in just three innings). This time, however, the Yankee eighth-inning rally tallied thirteen runs, the second time this year that the Yankees had scored thirteen runs in a single inning against Tampa, and the Bombers emerged with a 20-11 victory.

The next night a 3-2 Yankee lead was erased by a three-run Nick Green home run off Carl Pavano in the seventh, giving the Rays a 5-3 win. In the capper, the Rays got six runs off Chien-Ming Wang to take a 6-4 lead behind Mark Hendrickson, then added a three spot against Tom Gordon in the ninth for good measure to win 9-4.

That most recent series in the Bronx was particularly disheartening as the discrepancy between the Yankees' home record and the Devil Rays' road record entering the series was striking:

Yanks Home: 22-13 (.629)
Rays Road: 5-28 (.152)

Entering the current three-game series in Tampa, the home and away records of the two combatants tells a very different story. As of this past Friday:

Rays Home: 28-28
Yanks Road: 26-29

Sigh.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays*

2005 Record: 43-72 (.374)
2005 Pythagorean Record: 43-72 (.374)

Manager: Lou Piniella
General Manager: Chuck LaMar

Ballpark (2004 park factors): Tropicana Field (96/96)

Who has replaced whom?

Joey Gathright has replaced Reggie Taylor (DFA)
Pete LaForest has replaced Franklin Nunez (minors)
Seth McLung has replaced Hideo Nomo (Yankees)
Trever Miller (DL) has replaced Lance Carter (minors)
Joe Borowksi has replaced Lee Gardner (minors)

Current Roster:

1B – Travis Lee
2B – Nick Green
SS – Julio Lugo
3B – Jorge Cantu
C – Toby Hall
RF – Aubrey Huff
CF – Joey Gathright
LF – Carl Crawford
DH – Jonny Gomes

Bench:

R – Damon Hollins
R – Eduardo Perez (1B)
R - Alex S. Gonzalez (IF)
R – Kevin Cash (C)
L – Pete LaForest (C)

Rotation:

L – Scott Kazmir
L – Casey Fossom
R – Doug Waechter
L – Mark Hendrickson
R – Seth McLung

Bullpen:

R – Danys Baez
R – Travis Harper
L – Trever Miller
R - Chad Orvella
R – Joe Borowski
R - Tim Corcoran

DL:

R – Jesus Colome
R – Rocco Baldelli (OF) (60-day)

Typical Line-up

L – Joey Gathright (CF)
L – Carl Crawford (LF)
R – Jorge Cantu (2B)
L – Aubrey Huff (RF)
R – Julio Lugo (SS)
R - Jonny Gomes (DH)
L – Travis Lee (1B)
R – Toby Hall (C)
R - Nick Green (2B)

*roster and records as of Friday Aug. 12