Kevin Kiermaier received a dugout hug from Steven Souza Jr. after hitting a fifth inning homer off Marcus Stroman. (Photo Credit: Will Vragovic/Tampa Bay Times)

The Tampa Bay Rays came back from a 5–0 deficit Wednesday night, scoring in five consecutive innings to tie the game at six runs apiece, yet Toronto hit six two-strike homers to beat Tampa Bay 7–6. The nine combined homers tied a Tropicana Field record. The Rays will look to exact some revenge on Toronto and win the series this afternoon in a matinee game at the Trop. Tampa Bay is 12-3 in series wins when the team takes the first game of a set, as it did on Tuesday evening.

The Rays start the day four games back of the last playoff spot with 34 games left to play. After a prolonged offensive blackout, they now have scored six runs in three of the last four games.

A flurry of roster moves were made leading up to today’s contest. After covering five plus innings last night, following a short start by Austin Pruitt, the Rays shuffled their bullpen and optioned right-handed pitchers Chase Whitley and Andrew Kittredge to Triple-A Durham. The team recalled right-hander Chih-Wei Hu and activated Alex Cobb from the 10-day DL (turf toe).

The moves both cleared room on the 25-man roster for Cobb, and added depth to the bullpen.

The New What Next

Alex Cobb (9-8, 3.80 ERA, 4.30 FIP) will return to the mound this afternoon, toeing the rubber opposite of JA Happ (6-9, 3.90 ERA, 4.04 FIP).

Cobb will again take the mound after a stint on the 10-day DL with turf toe. The right-hander is 2-2 with a 3.98 ERA in five starts since the All-Star break, and is 0-1 with a 2.25 ERA in one start against Toronto this season (3-3 with a 3.56 ERA in seven career starts against the Blue Jays).

Happ allowed five earned runs in his last start against the Cubs — his worst outing in about a month. Prior to that, the left-hander had allowed just one earned run in three consecutive outings. He didn’t allow much hard contact; rather, he was done in by the BABIP luck dragons, with seven of nine hits against him falling for singles. The left-hander had posted a 3.79 ERA and 1.94 K/BB in his first six starts since the All-Star break. This will be his first start against Tampa Bay this season and he is 3-3 with a 5.08 ERA in 14 career games (13 starts) against the Rays. Key Matchups: Corey Dickerson (1-2, RBI), Kevin Kiermaier (4-16, 3 RBI, 2 BB), Evan Longoria (11-31, 3 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB), Brad Miller (2-8), Logan Morrison (7-14, 3 2B, 4 RBI, BB), Wilson Ramos (1-3), Steven Souza Jr. (6-14, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, BB)

You can read more about the the final meeting between the two teams in our series preview.

Rays 8/24/17 Starting Lineup

Kiermaier CF
Duda 1B
Longoria 3B
Morrison DH
Souza Jr. RF
Dickerson LF
Sucre C
Miller 2B
Robertson SS
Cobb RHP

Noteworthiness

DRaysBay asks if the promotion of just one minor leaguer could help the Rays, to which I say #FreeAdames!

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