Tampa Bay will be looking to bounce back from two critical losses to the Yankees when it travels to Toronto on Monday night. The Rays were on a four-game winning streak before losing the final two games of that series, falling out of contention atop the American League East standings. Toronto won its series against Texas over the weekend.
Tampa Bay will have to quickly respond emotionally after losing a pair of blowouts against the Yankees on Saturday and Sunday. The Rays swept Bostone earlier in the week before opening their series against New York with a 4-2 win on Friday. They were unable to maintain that momentum later in the weekend, getting outscored 20-7 in their final two games. Tampa Bay was trying to stay in contention with the Yankees atop the AL East, but the Rays are now 5.5 games back in the standings. They are tied with Seattle for the top AL Wild Card spot, sitting six games clear of Baltimore.
Final pic.twitter.com/id0ap5x4Pk
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) September 11, 2022
The Rays have been a decent offensive team, ranked No. 15 with a batting average of .243. Left fielder Randy Arozarena leads the way with 137 hits, including 19 home runs. Third baseman Yandy Diaz has 127 base knocks and has walked 75 times. They are facing a Toronto pitching staff that is No. 11 with an ERA of 3.89. Tampa Bay has not announced its starting pitcher for Monday night’s game. Shane McClanahan, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz are all starting pitchers who are on the injured list.