St. Louis Cardinals (63-65, fourth in the NL Central) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (61-66, fourth in the AL East)
Tampa, Florida; Thursday, 7:35 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Sonny Gray (11-6, 4.30 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 155 strikeouts); Rays: Joe Boyle (1-2, 4.68 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 34 strikeouts)
BOTTOM LINE: The Tampa Bay Rays look to end their three-game home losing streak with a victory against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tampa Bay is 61-66 overall and 32-32 in home games. Rays hitters have a collective .396 slugging percentage to rank 10th in the AL.
St. Louis is 28-35 in road games and 63-65 overall. The Cardinals have a 42-12 record in games when they out-hit their opponents.
The matchup Thursday is the first meeting of the season between the two teams.
TOP PERFORMERS: Junior Caminero leads the Rays with 35 home runs while slugging .521. Chandler Simpson is 15 for 41 with a double, a triple and three RBIs over the past 10 games.
Alec Burleson has a .284 batting average to lead the Cardinals, and has 20 doubles, a triple and 15 home runs. Pedro Pages is 14 for 32 with two home runs and eight RBIs over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 4-6, .228 batting average, 5.69 ERA, outscored by 19 runs
Cardinals: 4-6, .238 batting average, 4.55 ERA, outscored by seven runs
INJURIES: Rays: Ha-Seong Kim: day-to-day (back), Taylor Walls: 10-Day IL (groin), Jonny Deluca: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Jonathan Aranda: 10-Day IL (wrist), Stuart Fairchild: 10-Day IL (oblique), Manuel Rodriguez: 60-Day IL (forearm), Hunter Bigge: 60-Day IL (lat), Richie Palacios: 60-Day IL (knee), Shane McClanahan: 60-Day IL (tricep), Alex Faedo: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nathan Lavender: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Cardinals: Brendan Donovan: 10-Day IL (groin), Victor Scott II: 10-Day IL (ankle), Nolan Arenado: 10-Day IL (shoulder), John King: 15-Day IL (oblique), Zack Thompson: 60-Day IL (lat)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The Associated Press
