Everything you need to know about the Rays — and their rivalry with the Yankees — ahead of their ALDS, which begins Monday night.

The Yankees and Rays are meeting for the first time in postseason history, but there has been a long, feisty buildup to this ALDS. Here’s a look back at the moments that got the blood boiling between the two teams in recent years:

May 20, 2017: The tip of the iceberg may have begun to appear on a Saturday night at Tropicana Field. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Yankees reliever Tommy Layne drilled Corey Dickerson, who had homered in his first two at-bats, in the back with a fastball. On the first pitch of the next half inning, Matt Andriese plunked Aaron Judge with a pitch in the ribs and got tossed.

Sept. 27, 2018: The “That’s for you, b–ch,” game. CC Sabathia added a chapter to his legacy when he gave up a shot at a $500,000 innings bonus and got ejected after hitting Jesus Sucre on the leg with his first pitch of the sixth inning. It came a half inning after Andrew Kittredge had buzzed a 93-mph fastball behind Austin Romine’s head. As he walked off the field, Sabathia motioned to the Rays dugout and offered his parting words, “That’s for you, b–ch.”

May 17, 2019: There were no fireworks in the teams’ first series of the next season, but the peace didn’t last long. After Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez had been hit by pitches in the first series, Sabathia took the mound in the next one, and in the fifth inning threw an inside fastball that made Austin Meadows jackknife out of the way. As he walked off at the end of the inning, Sabathia appeared to yell, “I was definitely trying to hit his ass.”

July 16, 2019: Sabathia was involved in a Rays skirmish once more during his final season. The big lefty struck out Avisail Garcia to end the sixth inning and appeared to say something toward home plate — which Sabathia later said was not directed at Garcia. But the Rays outfielder thought it was, which then began a heated exchange of words with the benches clearing and Didi Gregorius having to hold back Sabathia.

Aug. 8, 2020: Kittredge was on the mound for another chapter of the feud and rekindled it by throwing a pair of pitches high and tight to Gio Urshela and DJ LeMahieu (who had avoided another close pitch earlier in the game) in the fifth inning. Chirping from the Yankees dugout ensued, and hitting coach Marcus Thames was ejected because of it, with manager Aaron Boone also getting tossed for defending him. Judge confirmed Kittredge was the source of animosity. “I think it was more just about the history,” Judge said.

Sept. 1, 2020 : Social distancing went out the window in this one. Masahiro Tanaka had hit Joey Wendle in the first inning, but then with two outs in the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman fired a 101-mph fastball that just missed Mike Brosseau’s head. Chapman went on to strike out Brosseau, but afterwards the benches cleared with more words exchanged. Then the big threat came after the game from Rays manager Kevin Cash, who ripped the Yankees for “poor judgment, poor coaching, poor teaching,” and warned, “I have a whole damn stable of pitchers that throw 98 miles per hour. Period.”

1. The Rays captured the best record in the American League this year (40-20) while playing with the third-lowest payroll in all of Major League Baseball ($28,290,689), according to Spotrac. The only teams with lower payrolls were the Pirates and Orioles, who combined for just four more wins than the Rays themselves. The largest payroll in 2020, of course, belongs to the Yankees at $109,507,829.

2. In case the small payroll didn’t make for a big enough chip on their shoulders, the Rays have their share of key pieces that made the major leagues from small colleges and late rounds of the draft. Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier? Division II (NJCAA) Parkland College, 30th round. Infielder Joey Wendle? Division II West Chester University, sixth round. Utilityman Mike Brosseau? Oakland University, undrafted. Pitcher Josh Fleming? Division III Webster University, fifth round. Reliever Oliver Drake? Navy, 43rd round (by Baltimore). Reliever Nick Anderson? Mayville State (NAIA), 32nd round (by Milwaukee).

3. Closer by committee is typically a nice way to say a team doesn’t have a single pitcher strong enough to be the full-time closer. But the Rays played it well this season, with 12 different relievers recording a save during the regular season and a 13th, Pete Fairbanks, tallying one during their wild-card series against the Blue Jays. The 12 pitchers with a save during the regular season tied the 1973 Rangers for the MLB record. Anderson led the way, going 6-for-6 in save opportunities with a 0.55 ERA. The Rays did have eight blown saves — denying two more relievers a chance to record a save — but their 74-percent save conversion rate was fifth-best in MLB.

4. Good luck pinning down the regular Rays lineup — there isn’t one. Manager Kevin Cash wrote out 60 different lineups for 60 games this season. He did use one batting order twice, but flip-flopped Brosseau and Wendle at second and third base, making sure it wasn’t completely the same. For good measure, the two lineups he used in the wild-card round against the Blue Jays were different than any other used in the regular season.

5. The Rays’ on-field coaching staff lists all the regulars like pitching coach, hitting coach, bench coach, first- and third-base coaches and then … process and analytics coach? Jonathan Erlichman is in his second season in that role for the forward-thinking Rays, working “to improve decision-making processes and practice methods, and gather feedback from players and coaches alike,” per his official bio. The Princeton grad with a degree in math was previously the team’s director of analytics.

The Yankees and Rays don’t like each other, but they do have some overlap between the two organizations. Here’s a look at their ties:

Kevin Cash: Long before the Rays manager had “a whole damn stable of pitchers that throw 98 mph,” Cash was an injury replacement for Jorge Posada and Jose Molina on the 2009 Yankees. He caught 10 games that May, after getting called up from Triple-A. Not long after he was sent back to the minors, though, Cash underwent season-ending rotator cuff surgery, watching from afar as the Yankees went on to win the World Series.

Ji-Man Choi: The Rays first baseman spent 2017 in the Yankees’ organization after signing as a minor league free agent. He played six games with the big league club, going 4-for-15 (.267) with two home runs during a July call-up before being designated for assignment. In 87 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he hit .288 with a .911 OPS.

Erik Kratz: The Yankees’ veteran backup catcher had a brief stint with the Rays in 2019. The Giants traded him to Tampa Bay in May 2019 (for Long Island native Matt Seelinger) and he played six games for the Rays. Less than a month later, he was released and then signed by the Yankees, finishing out the year at Triple-A.

Mitch Lukevics: The Rays’ senior advisor of player development and baseball operations, who was their farm director from 2006-2019, also ran the Yankees’ minor league operations from 1989-1995. He left the Yankees to join the Rays as a pitching coach in 1996.

Pete Fairbanks: The Yankees, indirectly, helped Fairbanks land in Tampa Bay’s deep bullpen. The Rays traded for the right-hander in 2019, sending the Rangers infielder Nick Solak to complete the deal. The Yankees had drafted Solak in the second round of the 2016 draft and he reached Double-A Trenton in 2017 before they included him in the three-team trade that landed Brandon Drury in The Bronx, with Solak going to Tampa Bay.