Rays' hot start doesn't surprise Yankees

That, in terms of the standings, the most significant series of an important week starts Wednesday night with the Rays in town comes as no surprise to the Yankees.

"Not at all," Mark Teixeira said before last night's game. "Talent is talent."

The Rays have baseball's best record at 28-11, good enough for a 2½-game lead over the Yankees, who came into last night's game against the Red Sox at 25-13. The Sox trailed the Rays by nine games.

Two of the Rays' losses came the first weekend of the season against the Yankees at Tropicana Field.

"They're a complete team," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Speed, power, defense . . . and they're playing at an extremely high level."

The 2008 American League champions were certainly not an embarrassment last season at 84-78. But they fell far short of expectations set for them, never threatening the Yankees in finishing 19 games behind.

But Teixeira said that record wasn't representative of what the Rays put on the field.

"Last year they had injuries, their bullpen lost a lot of games for them because of those injuries," Teixeira said. "If you take away their blown saves last year, they're probably right in the thick of our race. So this is a really good team."

The Rays are tied for third in the AL in runs (201) but their pitching is the primary reason they're where they are. Tampa leads the AL in ERA (2.74) and two of its best will go this series. Wade Davis (3-3, 3.38) takes on A.J. Burnett (4-1, 3.31) tonight and James Shields (4-1, 3.00) will face Andy Pettitte (5-0, 1.79).

Tough matchups, though the Yankees, who lead the AL with 219 runs and are second in ERA (3.68), are fortunate to be missing the Rays' best starter to this point - lefthander David Price, who beat them April 9 and is 6-1 with a 1.81 ERA.

Among the offensive stars for the Rays is, not surprisingly, Evan Longoria, who comes into the series hitting a team-best .318 with a team-leading nine homers and 35 RBIs.

"They're a good team," Derek Jeter said.

That said, the Yankees aren't overly fixated on the series and its meaning for the standings.

"I don't really get caught up in the standings," Girardi said. "I look at the scores every night and that's American League and National League. That's just what I do, I can't get enough. I get home, I turn on a West Coast game. But [the Rays] are playing extremely well and I am not surprised. I've said all along they're a very talented club. But as far as getting too caught up in the division, the race right now, I don't get too caught up in it."

Jeter sees it the same way.

"I know they've been playing well because people have mentioned it, but I have not been . . . I don't really watch games or run to the newspapers to see what people are doing," Jeter said. "At this point in the season - where are we, May? - you still play everybody in our division 50 times each. I think it's way too early to be thinking about what other teams are doing."

With Anthony Rieber