San Diego @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( Jun 14, 2007 ) San Diego 7, Tampa Bay 1
Mat Latos enjoyed his first taste of action against the AL East in his previous outing.
Tuesday's helping could prove a little tougher to digest.
Latos looks for his eighth victory of the season as he leads the San Diego Padres into the curtain-raiser of a three-game interleague series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The teams last faced off in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2007, with the Padres winning two out of three games.
San Diego remains atop the heap in a tight NL West race, nursing a 1 1/2-game lead over the San Francisco Giants. The Padres remained in control after taking two out of three against the lowly Baltimore Orioles, including an emphatic 9-4 victory in Sunday's series finale.
Latos (7-4) did his part during San Diego's 5-4 homestand, pitching into the seventh inning en route to an 8-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. The 6-foot-6 right-hander scattered four hits over 6 2/3 innings, striking out seven to earn his fourth victory in the past five starts.
Latos has been one of the Padres' most consistent starters this season, going at least six innings in eight of his past nine starts. Not surprisingly, San Diego has gone 6-3 in those games - including a 1-0 victory over the Giants on May 13 in which Latos went the distance on a one-hitter.
His task could prove much tougher Tuesday, as he faces a motivated Rays team that finds itself in an unfamiliar position in the competitive AL East. After leading the division for most of the season, Tampa Bay slipped to second in the East after going 2-4 on its six-game road trip, passed by the red-hot New York Yankees.
The Rays have some company, too - the hard-charging Boston Red Sox have won six in a row to propel themselves into a tie for second place. Along with the Atlanta Braves, the Yankees, Rays and Red Sox are the only teams in the majors to have a winning percentage of .600 or higher.
Tampa Bay turns to Wade Davis (5-7) in the series opener. The rookie right-hander will try to get back on track after losing his last three outings, lasting into the sixth inning in just one of them. The rough stretch has elevated his ERA to 4.94.
Davis surrendered three runs on seven hits over five innings in his previous outing, a 6-2 loss to the Braves.
If the Rays hope to improve on their ordinary 18-15 record at Tropicana Field, they'll need more from Evan Longoria - and more of the same from Carl Crawford.
Longoria is mired in a 1-for-17 slump that has dropped his average to .304, while Crawford is at the other end of the spectrum. He is coming off an AL Player of the Week nod after hitting .429 over his past six games.