Rays Look For Series Sweep vs Yankees on Sunday

[Newman]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.There a lot at stake for the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, and manager Kevin Cash is hoping for another nice boost from pitcher Shawn Armstrong, who was awesome in an emergency role last Tuesday.It was Armstrong who was pressed into duty in Miami when ace Shane McClanahan had trouble getting loose prior to his start against the Marlins https://www.newyorkfanoutlet.com/Jacoby_Ellsbury_Jersey. Armstrong threw three scoreless innings in the Rays 7-2 win, and now hell do the same thing on Sunday in the series finale against the New York Yankees at Tropicana Field.The Rays have won the first two games of the series and are now just four games behind the Yankees in the suddenly-tight American League East race. The Rays have picked up 11.5 games on the Yankees since July 10.Armstrong, a 31-year-old New Bern, N.C. native, has bounced around the big leagues since 2015. He pitched well for the Rays for much of this season. Rays manager Kevin Cash, who known him since Armstrong minor-league days in the Cleveland organization, said were seeing the best of Armstrong now.It was a little bit of a fiasco with Shane coming out, butdid such a good of keeping his composure leading up to it, Cash said.He controlled what he could control getting warmed up, and when he got on the mound, he was pretty dominant.We needed him to get more than one inning through, and he did a great job of that. Ive know Shawn for a long time, and he changed his approach a little bit. He developed a sinking fastball Gerrit Cole Jersey, a running fastball, and they compliment each other. His confidence has grown, too. When youre up/down, moving around from team to team, that can weigh on you. But I think he feels confident in his role with us.The Rays are expecting to turn the ball over to Ryan Yarbrough after Armstrong. He got rocked in Boston in his last outing, but in mid-August, he pitched four scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, in a 4-0 Rays victory over the Yankees.