Tampa Bay Rays (12-14) vs Miami Marlins (11-12)
Marlins Park
Miami, FL
Rays Pregame:
The road trip concludes with a home-and-home, four-game series against the Miami Marlins to kick off the interleague slate for the Rays. The first two, both night games, will be from Marlins Park in Miami. On Wednesday and Thursday, the series concludes at Tropicana Field.
After dropping two of three in Toronto over the weekend, the Rays sit in fourth place in the AL East.
The lineup on Monday night looked quite different. The Rays lead all of MLB in strikeouts with 258 – five more than the Brewers. Kevin Kiermaier and Evan Longoria were both out of the lineup combining for 60 punch-outs between them. Kiermaier, 1-for-32 in his last eight games, struck out three times in the finale in Toronto and will be spelled by Peter Bourjos in center. Longoria, 3-for-24 in his last six games, takes a night off as Daniel Robertson gets a start at third Monday night.
The good news? Steven Souza Jr returns to the DH-less lineup after being plunked on the left hand in Toronto on Saturday afternoon.
CF Peter Bourjos
RF Steven Souza Jr
LF Corey Dickerson
1B Rickie Weeks Jr
2B Brad Miller
SS Tim Beckham
C Derek Norris
3B Daniel Robertson
RHP Jake Odorizzi
RHP Jake Odorizzi (1-1, 4.15) makes his return after missing two starts on the 10-day DL. He was removed from his last start in Boston on April 15 with a hamstring injury. It will be the 100th start in a Rays uniform for Odorizzi. Only five other pitchers in team history have reached that milestone. James Shields (217), David Price (170), Scott Kazmir (144), Chris Archer (132), and Jeremy Hellickson (108) all accomplished it, themselves.
Marlins Pregame:
The Marlins are coming off a 10-3 win over Pittsburgh Sunday but have lost four of five. They are currently tied for second with the Phillies in the NL East at 11-12. Their .260 team avg is good for fourth in the NL. They’ll send LHP Wei-Yin Chen (2-1, 4.71) to the hill. Chen is coming off a loss in Philly on April 26th in which he went five innings giving up four runs on seven hits.
2B Dee Gordon
3B Martin Prado
CF Christian Yelich
RF Giancarlo Stanton
LF Marcell Ozuna
1B Justin Bour
C J.T. Realmuto
SS Adeiny Hechavarria
LHP Wei-Yin Chen
NOTES:
- Before the game tonight, the Rays optioned RHP Ryan Garton to make room for Odorizzi.
- OF Colby Rasmus is expected in Miami tonight and will most likely be activated in the next day or two.
GET OUT AND VOTE!
It’s that time of year already. The MLB All-Star voting has begun.
Time to #VoteRays! Send your favorite players down to the #ASG game by voting on the #ASG @esurance ballot.
VOTE // https://t.co/NFbaiANyBs pic.twitter.com/EPV52UTcE5
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) May 1, 2017
