Welcome, folks. The Tampa Bay Rays host the San Diego Padres for an matinee matchup looking for the three-game sweep of the All-Star Game hosts. On Tuesday night, the Rays hit five homers in a 15-1 romp over the Padres. Here are the lineups for this afternoon:
Rays
Nick Frankin – 2B
Kevin Kiermaier – CF
Evan Longoria – 3B
Brad Miller – 1B
Mikie Mahtook – LF
Logan Morrison – DH
Steven Souza, Jr. – RF
Tim Beckham – SS
Bobby Wilson – C
Padres
Travis Jankowski – CF
Wil Myers – RF
Yangervis Solarte – 3B
Alex Dickerson – DH
Ryan Schimpf – LF
Christian Bethancourt – C
Brett Wallace – 1B
Alexei Ramirez – SS
Nick Noonan – 2B
On the mound
Padres: Christian Friedrich (4-8) gets the nod today, his 17th start of the season for the 28-year-old lefty. Friedrich has a 4.84 ERA and last pitched Aug. 11 against Pittsburgh, which tagged him for a loss after pitching 6 innings and allowing four runs on nine hits and a walk. The Padres are 7-9 in his 16 starts this season and given him a 5.46 run-support average.
Rays: Chris Archer (6-16) makes his 26th start of the season and last pitched Friday vs. the New York Yankees for Alex Rodriguez’s last game with the team. Archer allowed five runs, including an RBI double to A-Rod in the third inning. His 16 losses lead the major league and are two more than former Ray and White Sox starter James Shields. Archer’s 2016 ERA is 4.39, however, it is 7.92 in the first inning and then 3.65 after that. Archer leads the league with 177 strikeouts. Archer is just 2-8 at Tropicana Field this season.
Duffy, Forsythe nursing injuries
Rays second baseman Logan Forsythe and shortstop Matt Duffy were both out of the lineup for Wednesday to deal with injuries.
Forsythe was scratched shortly before Tuesday’s game with back spasms, while Duffy exited after three innings with soreness in his left Achilles, an injury that recently had him return from the DL.
Rays manager Kevin Cash was “not too concerned” with either injury and both players could return to the lineup Friday after a day off Thursday.
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