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ST. PETERSBURG T.J. Yeldon Jersey , Fla. — The New York Yankees are the only team in baseball yet to lose three games in a row this season, but that could end Sunday with a sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Tampa Bay (36-40) posted a 4-0 victory Saturday at Tropicana Field after a 2-1 win Friday. For the second day in a row, the Rays relied on a patchwork relievers-as-starters bullpen-day approach.

The Yankees have not gone this late into a season without losing three in a row since August 1954.

The Rays have an actual starter on the mound Sunday in Blake Snell, who looks like an All-Star with a 9-4 record and 2.48 ERA. But he’s 0-2 against the Yankees with a 9.72 ERA, including his only loss in his last seven outings.

On June 14, Snell gave up four runs in five innings in a loss to the Yankees. By comparison, he has a 0.95 ERA in three outings against the Boston Red Sox.

Snell’s career record against the Yankees is 2-4 with a 4.89 ERA in 10 starts.

If Snell has the Yankees (50-24) as a nemesis, New York starter Domingo German (2-4, 4.77 ERA) is nearly the opposite — he had no wins in his first 11 appearances of the season until a June 14 game against the Rays when he lasted six innings and gave up three runs and five hits with a season-high 10 strikeouts for his first victory of the year. German made it two straight wins with a 7-2 victory over Seattle on Tuesday, striking out nine.

A Rays sweep of the Yankees would be unexpected, given that they opened the season with five straight wins over Tampa Bay by a combined score of 31-10. The Rays had lost five of seven entering the series Devon Kennard Jersey , but now are one win from a sweep.

“That road trip kind of knocked us in the mouth a little bit,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We faced arguably the two best teams in the American League (Yankees and Astros). … To be able to come back here, take the off day, get back at home and the fans, my gosh, the fan support that we’ve gotten has been outstanding, and to find a way to win two games has to be special for this clubhouse.”

The Yankees have dominated in the first three months of the season and so scoring one run in a span of two nights is concerning but nothing Aaron Boone is too worried about long term. The Yankees haven’t had extended hitting slumps this season, so he’s eager to see his lineup get back to business even before the squad leaves town.

“You’re going to hit a little dry spell like that,” Boone said. “Overall, we haven’t really been mounting much since that big inning a couple of days ago. Over the course of 162 games, that is going to happen. We just have to keep grinding at it and really come back and have that urgency (Sunday) Bobby Massie Jersey , to try to get out of here with one (win) under our belt.”

NEW YORK — A lineup shakeup produced the desired results Monday night for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately for the New York Mets, rookie manager Mickey Callaway already unsuccessfully pulled that out of his bag of tricks.

The Pirates will look to lock up a series win Tuesday over the free-falling Mets Tuesday night, when the two teams play the middle game of a three-game set at Citi Field.

Pirates right-hander Chad Kuhl (5-5, 4.56 ERA) is scheduled to oppose Mets left-hander Steven Matz (3-5, 3.68 ERA).

The Pirates ended a five-game losing streak Monday night, when a rejiggered top of the lineup scored five runs in a 6-4 victory.

The Pirates’ top three batters — Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Josh Harrison — were all occupying those spots for the first time this season. Marte scored three runs and stole two bases, Bell hit a two-run homer and Harrison delivered a sacrifice fly and scored a run.

The six runs were the most the Pirates (37-41) have scored since an 8-6 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on June 17. Pittsburgh scored nine runs in the subsequent six games.

“If it’s broken, you have to fix it, right?” Bell said Monday night. “Changing things up, giving us all a new view. Marte hasn’t led off in a while. ‘J-Hey’ is hitting third. Changing things up Jeff Driskel Jersey , it might have been the spark that we needed.”

The Mets (31-45) have been looking for a spark for weeks. New York has lost seven straight, 18 of 22 and 20 of 64 since an 11-1 start to fall dangerously close to the bottom of the National League. The only team with a worse record in the Senior Circuit is the Miami Marlins, who rank mere percentage points behind at 32-47.

Shuffling the lineup hasn’t worked for Callaway, who had three players (second-place batter Jose Bautista, cleanup batter Dominic Smith and sixth-place batter Jose Reyes) in unfamiliar spots Monday. Smith was batting cleanup for the first time this year while Bautista and Reyes were occupying their spots for the second and third time, respectively.

Against the New York Yankees on June 9, Callaway batted Amed Rosario leadoff for the first time as a major leaguer and Todd Frazier and Brandon Nimmo second and third, respectively, for the first time this season in a 4-3 loss.

With the Mets seeing no immediate payoff for Callaway’s mixing and matching, he is left to hope the lessons learned from the extended bleak times will yield results down the road.

“As hard as it’s been, we have to understand that this is something that we can benefit from in the long run Henry Anderson Jersey ,” Callaway said Monday afternoon. “No matter how many times you fall, you can learn from it. And I think our guys understand that and we talk about that type (of) stuff all the time.”

Kuhl and Matz will both be looking to bounce back from rough losses last Thursday.

Kuhl allowed eight runs over two innings as the Pirates fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-3. The eight runs were the second-most Kuhl’s allowed as a big leaguer while the two innings pitched marked his second-shortest start.

Matz gave up five runs over 5 2/3 innings in the Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies. The five earned runs were a season-high for Matz, who allowed three runs or fewer in his seven of his previous eight starts.

Kuhl took the defeat in his only previous start against the Mets on May 26, 2017, when he gave up five runs over 4 1/3 innings as the Pirates lost, 8-1.

Matz also lost his lone start against the Pirates on June 7, 2016, when he allowed two runs over five innings as the Mets fell, 3-1.