Blue Jays close in on series win over Rays

Posted September 23, 2018 7:00 am

By The Associated Press

Tampa Bay Rays (86-68, third in AL East) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (71-84, fourth in AL East)

Toronto; Sunday, 1:07 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Rays: Blake Snell (20-5, 1.97 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 200 strikeouts) Blue Jays: Ryan Borucki (4-4, 3.86 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 57 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Toronto is looking to secure a series win with a victory over Tampa Bay. The Blue Jays have gone 7-8 in games started by Borucki. Toronto's lineup has 209 home runs this season, led by Justin Smoak's mark of 25. The Tampa Bay offense has compiled a .260 batting average as a team this year, Mallex Smith leads the team with a mark of .302. In Saturday's game, the Blue Jays defeated the Rays 5-2. Thomas Pannone got the win for Toronto, his fourth on the season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Matt Duffy has 148 hits for the Rays this season. Heâ€™s batting .297 on the year. Tommy Pham has three home runs and seven RBIs while slugging .763 over his past 10 games for Tampa Bay. Teoscar Hernandez is hitting .240 with 111 hits and 20 home runs in 128 games this year for the Blue Jays. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has 12 hits and is batting .286 over his past 10 games for Toronto.

LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 7-3, .295 batting average, 3.21 ERA, outscored opponents by 21 runs. Blue Jays: 6-4, .245 batting average, 4.66 ERA, outscored by eight runs.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.

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