The Tampa Bay Rays won their fourth in a row late last night against the Angels, 7-1. (Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Rays)

The Tampa Bay Rays look to win a fifth consecutive game tonight, and clinch a winning road trip, after taking down the Los Angeles late last night, 7-1. The Rays are 5–3 on an 11-game three-city trip.

The Rays hit three home runs on Thursday, accounting for five of the team’s seven runs and giving them more than enough offensive production to take down one of the best teams in the American League.

Tampa Bay did suffer another injury, as shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria left with a mild right hamstring strain after hitting a single to left field in the second inning. When Hechavarria reached first base, he grabbed at the back of his leg/hamstring. He was re-evaluated Friday, and while nothing official has been announced by the team, it doesn’t appear that the Rays are making a roster move, so they must have gotten a good report from Hechavarria.

In any case, Hechavarria became the third player to be injured on this trip, following Carlos Gomez (right groin strain), and Matt Duffy (right hamstring tightness). Neither Duffy nor Hechavarria are in the lineup tonight, however, Duffy is expected to return to the fold on Saturday.

The New What Next

Blake Snell (4-3, 3.12 ERA) will get the start tonight for Tampa Bay, pitching opposite of Nick Tropeano (1-2, 3.64 ERA).

Blake Snell took his third loss of the season on Sunday and is dealing with a sore right hip. The revelation came during manager Kevin Cash’s postgame press conference following a forgettable outing in which the left-hander allowed five earned runs on six hits over 3-1/3 innings against Baltimore. According to Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) Cash made sure to emphasize that it is a “minor, minor injury,” but also conceded the discomfort was the primary reason why he opted to pull Snell after just 73 pitches, allowing that he didn’t think the Snell “looked quite like himself.” Snell has faced the Angels just once, but walked away as the hard luck loser after he put together a 6 IP/4 H/2 ER/7 K performance. Prior to that outing, Snell had allowed two runs or fewer in six consecutive starts.

Nick Tropeano was credited with a no-decision in his last start on Saturday against Minnesota after the right-hander yielded three runs over six innings. This season he has relied primarily on his 91 mph four-seam fastball with natural sinking action and slight armside run, and an 80 mph 12-6 slider, while also mixing in an 82 mph splitter that dives down out of the zone, an 89 mph sinker with obvious tail, and a whiffy 82 mph changeup. He is 0-1 with a 4.35 ERA in two career starts against the Rays, but has not faced them since 2016. Tropeano is also 3-4 with a 4.56 ERA in 14 career starts at Angel Stadium. Key Matchup: Brad Miller (3-9, 2 HR, 3 RBI)

You can read about the series in our preview.

The New What Next: Rays vs Halos — a series preview

Rays 5/18/18 Starting Lineup

Span LF
Cron DH
Wendle 2B
Ramos C
Miller 1B
Robertson SS
Smith CF
Arroyo 3B
Field RF
Snell LHP

Noteworthiness

— The Rays are plotting something different and unusual for Saturday, starting the game with RHP Sergio Romo, then switching to LHP Ryan Yarbrough, based primarily on matchups.

According to Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) the thinking is that Romo’s combination of slow, sweeping breaking balls will stymie the six or so aggressive right-handers at the top of the Angels order.

In theory, that would allow the Rays’ southpaw to come in against the bottom third of the order and work deeper into the game without facing Mike Trout, Justin Upton, Zack Cozart, Albert Pujols, Andrelton Simmons and Ian Kinsler for a third time through the order.

The way that their lineup stacks generally speaking is very heavy right-handed at the top, manager Kevin Cash said when asked about the plan after Thursday’s game.

It allows us in theory to let Sergio to come in there and play the matchup game in the first, which is somewhat unheard of — up until Saturday anyway.

Then Yarbs can, in theory, have the availability to get deeper in the game. There’s no more secret about the third time through the order, everybody knows that. And that’s kind of what this is about.

Romo has never started a game in his 11-year major-league career, yet Cash said the right-hander is beyond excited to start the ball game, saying:

I can tell you this: Sergio Romo’s really excited about this. He might be the most excited of anybody in baseball.

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