After walking it off in the 4-3 in an extra inning win over the Red Sox last night, the Tampa Bay Rays look for a series split with Boston this afternoon. Tampa Bay notched a second consecutive winning home stand with the latest victory, as the look to finish the stand with a 7-3 record before heading to Houston.
The walk-off win was the team’s third this season, and the eighth time in franchise history the team won on a walk-off error. It also was the Rays’ fourth win of the season when trailing after seven innings.
Jake Odorizzi (8-5, 3.63 ERA) will get the start for Tampa Bay, opposite of Drew Pomeranz (10-9, 2.95 ERA).
Odorizzi boasts the lowest ERA in the American League since the All-Star Break (1.64 ERA). He’s faced the BoSox twice this season, allowing nine runs over nine innings. In his last start he allowed just one earned run on six hits and a walk over six innings in an 8-2 victory over the Rangers. He struck out four. Of his total 101 pitches, 65 went for strikes, with his only mistake being a solo shot to Roughned Odor. Odorizzi has been very good over his last seven starts, posting six quality starts over that stretch.
Pomeranz has allowed two runs or fewer in his last four starts. In his last outing he allowed one run on four hits over five innings Saturday against Detroit. He struck out three. The one run he allowed came on a James McCann solo shot, though a long rain delay knocked Pomeranz out of the game in the bottom of the fifth. He had thrown only 51 pitches over the first five innings, and now is 10-9 overall this season. He also has an impressive 2.95 ERA and 150 strikeouts in 140-1/3 innings this season. Pomeranz relies upon an 80 mph, worm-killer knuckle curveball and a whiffy 92 mph four-seam fastball. He’ll also mix in an 87 mph cutter and a hard 87 mph changeup.
You can read more about the pitching matchups in our series preview.
Rays 8/25/15 Starting Lineup
Forsythe 2B
Kiermaier CF
Longoria 3B
Miller 1B
Duffy SS
Dickerson DH
Souza RF
Mahtook LF
Maile C
Odorizzi RHP
Noteworthiness
— Tyler Sturdevant was recalled from Triple-A Durham following the game last night, as the Rays have had their relievers pitch 14-1/3 innings over the first three games of this series. In doing so, Richie Shaffer was optioned back to the Triple-A.
— Evan Longoria set a team record last night, hitting 30 homers in a season for the fourth time in his career (surpassing Carlos Pena). Congrats, Longo!