The Yankees and Rays Are Sharing The Same Hotel For The ALDS Despite Absolutely Fucking Hating Each Other

The ALDS gets going tonight with the Yankees and Rays squaring for the first time ever against one another in the postseason. It's only fitting with how this season has gone that these two meet in this spot. It seems over the past 3-4 years we have been building to this moment. With the Red Sox now an irrelevant afterthought in the division, Tampa has emerged as a true contender in the AL East and all of baseball year in and year out. They're very, very good. To further raise tensions, the two clubs absolutely despise each other. Not like Yankees-Red Sox over the last 5 years where everyone was pretty much buddy-buddy. Nope, there's legit bad blood here and it's made this rivalry all the more fun. Let's refresh ourselves real quick on the hate. 

It all started back in 2017 with a Gary Sanchez home run that triggered a series of batters being plunked: Matt Holliday, Corey Dickerson, and Aaron Judge. 

After the game Kevin Cash basically said it was a fastball that got away, while Andriese played stupid and had no clue why he was ejected. 

At the end of the 2018 season there was the famous CC Sabathia "That's for you bitch" incident. That started when Jake Bauers was accidentally hit on the hand at the Trop. There was zero intention with that one, but of course the Rays took it personally. Later in the game, Austin Romine had his head thrown at by Andrew Kittredge. It doesn't take much to piss off CC and that certainly did the trick. You don't throw at his catcher like that and expect to get away with it. 

With the very first pitch in the next half inning, CC hit Jesus Sucre and was immediately ejected. As he walked off the mound he pointed towards the Rays dugout and said "That's for you bitch." Just a legendary moment from the southpaw.

That man HATES the Rays. Is there a Yankees-Rays rivalry right now without CC Sabathia? You know what, maybe not, but I'm glad there is because he's exposed these little pricks for who they are. They love to pitch up and in, especially after the Yankees hit homers off them. Afterwards they play dumb. The Yankees don't like that. There's zero love lost between the two and it's only continued into 2020. The Yankees have been thrown at. The Rays have been thrown at. There was the Aroldis Chapman incident where the Rays thought he intentionally threw at Mike Brousseau's head. Still to this day I do not believe he did, but that's irrelevant now. 

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Tampa beat the Yankees 8 out of 10 games this season. They absolutely had the Yankees number, no question. I think all that has done is fuel the fire more for New York. None of that regular season shit matters now besides the fact that the Rays will bat last in 3 of the 5 games. They're all be played in San Diego, under the confines of Petco Park. To add even more intrigue to the series, both teams are staying in the same San Diego hotel. 

Maybe right now things are okay, but after one game I can't imagine that situation being anything but awkward. It's all a product of this fucked up season, but here we are. 

Best of 5 games to decide who heads to the ALCS. Gerrit Cole. Blake Snell. Let's go to war.