Tampa Bay @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 27, 2010 ) Tampa Bay 4, Houston 4

The American League’s best visit the National League’s worst in what amounts to be a mismatch to open interleague play tonight at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

Tampa Bay, with the game’s best record (30-11), sends five-game winner Matt Garza to the mound against the Astros. The Rays have won six straight games and are coming off a two-game sweep of their closest pursuers, the New York Yankees.

Tampa Bay hammered New York 10-6 on Wednesday and made it two straight at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night with an 8-6 decision. In both games the Rays raced out to big leads before their bullpen made it interesting.

On Wednesday, the Rays’ pen surrendered four runs in the ninth, and gave up two more in the ninth in Thursday’s victory.

Still, the wins keep mounting.

Tampa Bay has won 29 of its first 40 games, the best start since the Boston Red Sox posted the same record in 2002. The Rays have ridden their starting pitching to the best start in franchise history. The starters are a combined 23-6 on the season and the team is also 17-4 on the road.

While things are going smoothly in Tampa, they couldn’t be any worse in Houston. Changes are in store after the Astros released second baseman Kaz Matsui on Wednesday and handed the starting job to Jeff Keppinger.

Houston called up Oswaldo Navarro to take Matsui’s spot on the roster. Navarro was riding a hot streak at the plate, batting .312 at Triple-A Round Rock, but is known more for his fielding. Matsui was in the final year of a three-year, $16.5 million deal.

Astros general manager Ed Wade promised moves, and the release of Matsui could be just the start of things for a team that has fallen out of contention.

No player will be a hotter trade-deadline commodity than Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt, who took the loss on Thursday to fall to 2-6 on the season.

The awful record has hardly been his fault, however. Houston has scored a total of 18 runs in Oswalt’s nine starts. Meanwhile, Oswalt sports a fantastic 2.66 ERA with a WHIP of just over 1.00.

Even struggling Lance Berkman bemoaned the ace pitcher’s lack of run support in Thursday’s game against Colorado,

The Astros were shut out again by Ubaldo Jiminez and a pair of relievers. Houston managed just three hits in the contest and heads into today’s contest losers of six of its last seven games.