Source: St. Petersburg Times

The Rays haven't been playing well, and they certainly aren't at full strength.

Perfect time to face the first-place Yankees, right?

Tampa Bay certainly has plenty of ground to make up, having lost 5-3 to the Tigers on Sunday afternoon — its ninth loss in its past 12 — to drop 7½ games behind New York in the American League East.

But the resilient Rays see the three-game series with the Yankees, which starts tonight at Tropicana Field, as an opportunity to quickly flip the script.

"It's been a really tough last couple of weeks; we need to turn it around," Ben Zobrist said. "That's what we've got to do. The Yankees coming in is the perfect time to do it."

The Rays (41-38) will need a better performance than Sunday, when starter Alex Cobb got in too many bases-loaded jams, the defense made another error and the scuffling offense saw a rally cut short by a baserunning gaffe.

"At some point you have to cover your mistakes a little bit with your offense — we haven't been able to do that," manager Joe Maddon said.

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