Price is right: Rays ace stymies Tribe

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

Baseball’s best record in hand, the Tampa Bay Rays are looking forward to their next challenge.

The AL East leaders begin a two-game series tonight at Yankee Stadium, where they’re likely to field plenty of questions about whether their franchise-best 28-11 start is for real.

New York entered play Tuesday with the second-best mark in the majors, and the defending World Series champions won two of three between the division rivals the opening week of the season at Tropicana Field.

“It’s going to be fun going up there, as it should be,” manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday, when Evan Longoria drove in three runs and David Price became the AL’s first six-game winner with a 6-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians.

“You want to be on the top. You want to play the best teams. You want to play in the best division. I think it’s great,” Maddon added. “Our guys will be ready for it. Our game’s a pretty good game right now. We haven’t hit to our potential yet, but we’ve been doing everything else.”

Longoria, who has 21 RBIs in his past 19 games, had a run-scoring double off David Huff (1-6) in the third and a two-run triple off Hector Ambriz that was the biggest blow in a four-run sixth.

Price (6-1) won his fourth straight decision, lowering his ERA to 1.81 and improving to 9-1 over his last 12 starts dating to last season.