Tampa Bay @ Toronto preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 28, 2013 ) Tampa Bay 2, Toronto 7

The Toronto Blue Jays have put Tampa Bay in a precarious position and the visiting Rays badly need a win in Sunday’s regular-season finale or otherwise risk missing out on an American League wild-card berth. Toronto’s second consecutive win in the series dropped Tampa Bay behind Cleveland in the wild-card derby and into a tie with Texas for the second spot. A victory on Sunday assures the Rays will at least be involved in a tiebreaker for one of the two spots.

Tampa Bay’s fate is reminiscent of the 2011 season when the Rays rallied from a seven-run deficit in the final regular-season contest to land a wild card on Evan Longoria’s 12th-inning homer against the New York Yankees. “We’ve been here before, we’ve been in these moments,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said after Saturday’s loss. “We never do things seemingly easily so let’s just play (Sunday) and see what happens.” The Blue Jays (74-87) surpassed last season’s win total with Saturday’s victory and haven’t finished above. 500 since 2010.

TV: 1:07 p.m. ET, Sun Sports (Tampa Bay), RSN (Toronto)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Rays LH Matt Moore (16-4, 3.23 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH Todd Redmond (4-2, 3.77)

Moore has won eight of his last nine decisions with a Sept. 19 loss to Texas being the lone blemish. He beat the New York Yankees in his last start despite walking six while pitching five innings of three-hit shutout ball. Moore has defeated the Blue Jays twice this season to improve his career mark to 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA in six outings.

Redmond has won three consecutive decisions and has allowed two or fewer runs in four of his last five outings. He took a no-decision against Baltimore in his last turn when he gave up two runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. Redmond’s lone career outing against Tampa Bay was on Aug. 18 when he received a no-decision while giving up one run and six hits in six innings.

WALK-OFFS

1. Toronto DH Adam Lind had three RBIs before leaving Saturday’s game with back soreness. He had missed the previous two games with similar issues.

2. Rays 2B Ben Zobrist is 7-for-12 over the last three games.

3. The Blue Jays had 12 hits on Saturday but 15 of their 24 outs were on strikeouts.

PREDICTION: Rays 6, Blue Jays 5