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Phil Hughes Matchups to Watch
Likely Rays designated hitter Luke Scott is 8-for-15 in his career against Hughes. That .533 batting average is the highest among the 20 hitters who have at least 15 at-bats against Hughes.

On the other end of the spectrum, Ben Zobrist is 0-for-10 against Hughes, his second-worst 0-for against any pitcher.

Hughes has succeeded against Zobrist by avoiding pitching him down in the strike zone, or pitching him inside.

The only pitcher against whom Zobrist is worse is currently injured Yankee Joba Chamberlain (0-for-13).

Yankees fans will also be happy to know that Hughes has retired Carlos Pena (who has hurt the Yankees significantly in this series) in eight of their last nine confrontations.

The thing that will be interesting to watch will be if Hughes takes advantage of the big dimensions at Tropicana Field. He’s only allowed 16 home runs in 215 2/3 road innings for his career, but has given up four in 23 innings in Tampa.

Jeremy Hellickson Matchup to Watch
Hellickson, the American League Rookie of the Year, will be tested by Robinson Cano, who has tagged him for five hits, including two home runs, in 11 at-bats.

Much like teammate James Shields, Hellickson is reliant on the changeup, but was reluctant to throw it to Cano (who hits changeups very well last season, doing so only five times in 41 pitches.

The changeup is a key to Hellickson’s success and he’s the rare right-hander willing to throw the changeup a lot to right-handed hitters. Last season, Hellickson got 12 Yankees out with changeups, including Russell Martin five times. and Derek Jeter three times.

Stewart’s First Start?
With this being a day game after a night game, it would seem logical that this will be Chris Stewart’s first start as Yankees catcher.

Joe Girardi said that Stewart had Yadier Molina skills behind the plate, which is significant praise. Stewart ranked third in the majors last season in catcher caught stealing percentage, throwing out 19 of 53 would-be basestealers (36 percent).

Also noteworthy: Giants pitchers had a 2.70 ERA in Stewart’s 460 1/3 innings catching last season, compared to a 3.43 ERA with other catchers.

Stewart’s vulnerability is at the plate. He hit only .204 in 162 at-bats last season. His one hot spot was middle-in. Two of his three home runs last season came on inside pitches.

0-3?
The Yankees haven't started 0-3 since 1998, a year in which they won 114 games and the World Series. The last 0-3 start prior to that was in 1985.

Phil Hughes What2Watch4
Though Hughes has allowed seven home runs in 34 innings against the Rays, most of that has been done by hitters not currently on the Rays roster. The one current Ray to homer against Hughes is Matt Joyce, who has gotten him twice in eight at-bats.

A pair of notable Rays hitters-- Casey Kotchman and Ben Zobrist are each 0-for-7 against Hughes.

The Rays will may load an extra left-handed bat or two against Hughes. Lefties are hitting .370 against him this season, including two hits in Hughes relief effort against the Red Sox last Sunday.

Hughes may be due for some better fortune in one area. In his last three starts, he’s allowed 10 ground-ball hits to left-handed hitters, who are now 16-for-26 when hitting a ground ball against him this season. That’s not the Hughes of 2010, who held lefties to a .200 opponents batting average on ground balls, according to our pitch performance data.

Jeremy Hellickson What2Watch4
Hellickson beat the Yankees, 3-2, on July 19. The one thing the Yankees were able to do that day against him was run, netting four steals. Hellickson has not allowed a steal in three starts, spanning 19 1/3 innings since then.

Hellickson’s changeup is one of the toughest in all of baseball for a left-handed hitter to square up. Lefties are hitting a major-league low .184 when they make contact with a Hellickson changeup.

In that start against the Yankees, Hellickson got nine outs with his changeup, the lone hit against it being a Mark Teixeira double.

Hellickson will be putting a 6-2 record and 2.56 ERA in day games this season against the Yankees 32-8 mark in day games. He’ll also be looking to match Ivan Nova for the lead in wins by a rookie with his 11th.

Breakout Game2Watch4
Teixeira is in a funk. He’s 4-for-31 in his last eight games, with one extra-base hit and nine strikeouts.

Teixeira has had major issues against Rays right-handed pitchers over the last two seasons, going 10-for-74 (.135 batting average) against them.

The Rays employ a very specific strategy when a right-handed pitcher faces Teixeira. When they throw a fastball, it's located on the outer-third of the plate, or beyond, two-thirds of the time (the average opponent throws it there at a slightly lower percentage).

Teixeira is almost certain to see changeups from Hellickson if he gets behind two strikes. In 2009 and 2010, Teixeira had 11 hits against two-strike changeups from righties, albeit with 99 outs.

This season, he has made 28 outs against changeups from righties. But he's managed just one hit.

Leadoff Spot What2Watch4
Brett Gardner should be back in the leadoff spot, where he’s been successful recently. He’s 10-for-30 with eight runs scored in the last seven games in which he’s hit leadoff.

Defensive Player(or in this case Position)2Watch4
Rays second baseman Sean Rodriguez had a good defensive day on Friday, throwing out a man at the plate after taking a throw from rightfielder Ben Zobrist.

The two have teamed up nicely this season, particularly at second base. Rays second basemen entered the weekend with 16 Defensive Runs Saved, the most for any team’s infield position in the majors. Zobrist actually accounts for 12 of those as the team’s primary second baseman.

Here's one pitcher who wouldn't mind being in the record book as the pitcher who gave up hit No. 3,000 to Derek Jeter.

"I guess it would have kind of been cool to give it up as long as it didn't cost me a run or anything," said Tampa Bay pitcher Jeremy Hellickson, who had his start rained out Friday. "I wasn't really planning on giving it up."

Hellickson actually has had a dog named Jeter since 2005, right after he signed with Tampa Bay. He said he liked Jeter while he was growing up and it led to the naming.

"It turned out that way, I really wasn't expecting this to happen when I named him that," Hellickson said. "I didn't think I was going to be in this position six years ago, but it's kind of funny the way things happen."