ST. PETERSBURG Josey Jewell Color Rush Jersey , Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays were beaten by the slimmest of margins in the series opener, and the Houston Astros‘ dominating starting pitching gets another chance to showcase itself at Tropicana Field on Friday night.
On Thursday, it was Lance McCullers pitching a gem close to his hometown of Tampa, and on Friday, the Rays will try to create some offense against Gerrit Cole, who has been stellar in his first season in Houston.
Cole is 9-1 with a 2.56 ERA, and his only start without a win in his last five appearances came against the Rays on June 18. He threw seven innings and gave up four earned runs on three hits and five walks, and the Astros still won in his only career outing against the Rays.
Houston (55-28) is 18-3 in its last 21 games, with pitching leading the way. The Astros got a solo home run in the seventh inning from Jake Marisnick on Thursday, and that’s all they needed in a 1-0 victory that handed the Rays their 20th one-run loss of the season.
“It stinks when you lose 1-0. We won a ballgame 1-0 two days ago, so everything has to go right. … That’s the way it goes sometimes. Very, very pleased with our pitching. It kept us in every inning to give us a chance to tie it or take the lead.”
On Friday DaeSean Hamilton Color Rush Jersey , the Rays will again turn to a converted reliever as the starter, though Wilmer Font (1-3, 6.46) has had the best success of any Rays “opener” at stretching himself out into longer outings. He has managed to go a little longer than his previous start in each of his four starts in June. That includes going 5 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball against the Yankees last time out.
In those four June starts, his ERA is 1.80, allowing just three earned runs in his last 16 innings. That’s remarkable for a pitcher who came to the Rays four weeks ago with a 11.37 ERA.
Friday’s start will be his first appearance against the Astros as a member of the Rays, but he has appeared in two other games against Houston this season — one as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and one as a member of the Oakland A’s.
With the Dodgers, he faced Houston in April, giving up three runs (on three solo home runs) in two innings. In May, Font faced the Astros while with Oakland, this time allowing seven hits and five earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. His season ERA against Houston is a whopping 15.43.
The Astros are leading their division and the defending World Series champions may still be picking up momentum. Marisnick, for instance, hit .143 in April and .171 in May Sylvester Williams Color Rush Jersey , but is hitting .286 in June and his on-base percentage is more than double what it was entering the month.
“He’s not carrying the negativity that came with the first part of the season with him, and it’s good to watch him play relaxed,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s a tremendous athlete when he’s relaxed, and it’s translating into some really good at-bats.”
Houston is already two games into the second half of its season, while the Rays will hit their midway point with Friday’s game, still trying to get back above .500 for the season.
BALTIMORE — The Seattle Mariners manufactured runs the way they’ve done many times all season in Monday’s 5-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Now, the Mariners will try and do it again on Tuesday in the second game of a four-game series at Camden Yards.
Seattle drew a season-high 10 walks in the win on Monday, and five of them helped lead to four runs. Manager Scott Servais liked how his team kept finding ways to put runners on base and cause problems.
“We had a lot of traffic,” Servais said. “We had the opportunities to score a few more runs — but we’ll take it.”
James Paxton (6-2, 3.72 ERA) will try and break out of a bit of a slump when he starts Tuesday against Kevin Gausman (3-6, 4.38).
Paxton has allowed 10 earned runs and three homers in his last two starts. He’ll try to rebound from that in his third career start against the Orioles — the left-hander has a 1-0 record with a 4.50 ERA versus Baltimore.
Gausman will try to snap a four-game losing streak. The right-hander has not won in his last seven starts despite pitching effectively in several of them.
However, the Orioles have not always given him a lot of offensive support. He is 1-2 with a 3.04 career ERA versus Seattle.
The Mariners got back shortstop Jean Segura Monday after missing four games due to an infection in his arm.
Segura went 0-for-3 in the series opener Monday but made two great defensive plays while Baltimore scored twice in the sixth inning. The Orioles could have scored one or two more Kerryon Johnson Color Rush Jersey , which would have turned the game around.
Catcher Mike Zunino did not play on Monday due to a sore thumb but Servais said he’d return to the lineup for Tuesday’s game.
Servais also said the Mariners can’t overlook the Orioles despite the team’s struggles in the first three months.
“They’ve got power up and down the lineup,” he said. “They’ve started to heat up a little bit. You’ve got to make pitches, you got to keep them off-balance.”
The Orioles reinstated infielder Tim Beckham from the 60-day disabled list (left groin strain/surgery) and optioned pitcher Donnie Hart to Triple-A Norfolk. They also transferred infielder Luis Sardinas to the 60-day disabled list (left ankle sprain).
However, the Orioles may have run into another problem when starter Dylan Bundy, who’s been their top pitcher this season, rolled his ankle while running the bases in last weekend’s series with Atlanta.
Manager Buck Showalter said there’s a chance that Bundy will not make his scheduled start in the final game of this series on Thursday. There also is a chance Bundy could go on to the disabled list.
“He’s still scheduled to pitch on Thursday, but it’s something we’re going to have to see and prepare for … in case he can’t,” Showalter told reporters Monday.
Showalter also said Bundy could wind up on the 10-day disabled list. If so, the Orioles would need to do that by Tuesday so they could make it retroactive to Sunday and have Bundy back on the roster faster.
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