Last Updated on May 23, 2016 10:52 am by Brad Burns
Will Marlins snap losing skid vs. Rays?
After commencing their eight-game road trip on such a high note, the Rays are threatening to revert to those cursed early-season habits. Fortunately, tonight’s foe may be just the tonic for Kevin Cash’s club.
Tampa Bay visits Miami in the opener of an interleague two-pack, with a 7:10 p.m. ET first pitch at Marlins Park. Oddsmakers at online sports book Bovada.lv like the host squad as a slight favorite. The Rays, meanwhile, enter as +120 underdogs.
Cash’s crew began the weekend having captured four in a row. Two straight losses to Detroit featured many of the same mistakes that personified Tampa Bay’s 11-12 April, though. Lefty Matt Moore (1-3, 5.09 ERA) gets the call to reverse the trend this evening. The 26-year-old is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in three lifetime assignments vs. the Fish.
Sunday’s 8-2 defeat at the hands of NL East rival Washington marked Miami’s fourth setback in five contests. Irrespective of hurler Wei-Yin Chen’s (3-2, 4.22) performance in several hours, the offense must rise up. Don Mattingly’s troops own a .163 average with runners in scoring position over the last week. Worse, Giancarlo Stanton’s stuck in a .096 rut since May 7.
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Moore represents the type of fastball-reliant thrower against whom the cleanup man could experience success, but who else emerges for Mattingly? Christian Yelich stands to miss additional action because of a bad back, and it’s unfair to expect further four-hit showings out of Ichiro Suzuki. Expect a topsy-turvy initial affair between these two combatants.
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