An Intense 4-Game Series Will Begin Tonight In The A.L. East Battle For The Top Spot Of The Division

  With a 6-2 loss in Sunday's series finale, the New York Yankees were swept by the Tigers in Detroit for the first time since 2000, according to WFAN'S Sweeny Murti. The Yankees stacked up missed opportunities over the weekend, going 2 for 25 with runners in scoring position and stranding 28 baserunners in total, per Erik Boland of Newsday. 

  The Yankees have now scored three runs or fewer in 29 of their 53 games. The low ranking Pittsburgh Pirates are the only team to do that more frequently this year, according to Katie Sharp, but that is no excuse for the Yankees to not play their best version of baseball on the diamond.

  To make matters worse, the Yankees committed three errors on Sunday, with shortstop Gleyber Torres owning responsibility for two of those. (Third baseman Gio Urshela made the other.) Torres was, to put it mildly, not pleased with himself or his glove:  

  To put it in the most non-harsh way possible, the Yankees didn't help themselves in other aspects of the game, either. Starter Michael King and reliever Nestor Cortes Jr. combined to allow a total of six runs (five earned) on six hits and six walks over six innings of work. (Nick Nelson threw a pair of shutout innings to close the Yankees' side of the ledger). All this occurred while their 2-4 hitters (Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and Urshela) combined to go 1 for 11 with six strikeouts, including one to end the evening.

"This is just a bad ending to a terrible weekend....." manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including MLB.com's Bryan Hoch) after the game. "....We've got to get better."

  Hopefully it is just that, "....a bad ending to a terrible weekend...", because the Yanks need to find a way to get another winning stretch going again with the Rays coming into the Bronx tonight. 

  To kickoff the four-game A. L. East clash, it will a battle of righties on the mound to start game one. Tonight, Tyler Glasnow and Domingo German will toe the mound against each other at Yankees Stadium. 

  Through 11 starts, Tyler Glasnow has been dominant for the Rays, with a total of 98 strikeouts in 70 innings of work. He pitched eight inning of shutout baseball against the Royals on Wednesday, but he got a no-decision. 

  The Yankees will counter by giving German the baseball to toe the mound. He is actually coming off a tough-luck loss against the Blue Jays. In that start, he allowed two runs and three hits through 5 2/3 innings. He actually faced the Rays on April 10th in St. Petersburg, where he took a loss that permitted four hits in four innings.

  With the two starters looking to bounce back, game one of the four-game set should be an interesting one.