Tampa Bay @ Kansas City preview
Kauffman Stadium
Last Meeting ( Oct 1, 2010 ) Tampa Bay 0, Kansas City 7
The Tampa Bay Rays suddenly have some issues.
Friday night's 7-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals dropped the Rays out of first place in the AL East. Tampa Bay trails the New York Yankees by a half-game for the division lead and the best record in the league, which will give the AL East champion home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Yankees (94-65) were rained out on Friday night in Boston and will play a day-night doubleheader on Saturday. The Rays have lost three straight games and five of six, far from the ideal way a team wants to go into the playoffs.
The Rays would win the tiebreaker after taking the season series from the Yankees, 10-8, but they have bigger problems on their plate.
The losing streak has come against last-place teams. Tampa Bay lost the final game of a home series to the AL East doormat Baltimore Orioles and the first two contests of this series to the Royals, who are last in the AL Central.
The Rays lost the opener on Thursday night by a 3-2 score before going down meekly to Bruce Chen on Friday night.
Chen threw a two-hitter for his first career shutout while James Shields continued to struggle. Shields, who hasn't won since Aug. 29, gave up seven runs and 12 hits in five innings to go 0-4 in his last six starts.
Third baseman Evan Longoria was out again with a strained left quad. He hasn't played since Sept. 23 and might sit out the final two games of the regular season.
Manager Joe Maddon, who is setting up his playoff rotation, will give Andy Sonnanstine a spot start on Saturday.
David Price, who is in the running for the American League Cy Young Award, will be used in relief to stay sharp for his postseason start. The left-hander will probably pitch two innings. Price is 19-6 with a 2.73 ERA in 31 starts.
Making his fourth start of the season, Sonnanstine will probably pitch three or four innings before turning it over to Price. Sonnanstine made three starts in August when the rotation was hit by injuries. He went 1-1.
Kansas City starter Kyle Davies has faced the Rays once this season, receiving a no-decision in a 4-2 win on May 1 at Tropicana Field. Davies allowed two runs and three hits in six innings.
The fact he struck out six and walked five led to a pitch count of 110, which prevented him from working deeper into the game even though he was pitching well.