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Blue Jays open series at Tampa Bay

Toronto Blue Jays (72-87, fourth in AL East) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (88-71, third in AL East)

St. Petersburg, Florida; Friday, 7:10 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Blue Jays: Thomas Pannone (4-1, 3.58 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 26 strikeouts) Rays: Tyler Glasnow (2-7, 4.23 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 127 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Tampa Bay and Toronto meet to open a three-game series. The Rays are 4-6 in Glasnow's starts. Tampa Bay pitchers are holding opponents to just a .229 batting average this year. The Blue Jays have gone 29-44 against the rest of their division. Toronto's lineup has 147 home runs this season, led by Randal Grichuk's mark of 25. In their last meeting on Sept. 23, Blake Snell earned the win in a 5-2 victory for the Rays.

TOP PERFORMERS: Justin Smoak has 25 home runs and 77 RBIs in 146 games for the Blue Jays. Kevin Pillar has three home runs and four RBIs while slugging .655 over his past 10 games for Toronto. C.J. Cron has 66 runs and 72 RBIs for the Rays this season. Tommy Pham has four home runs and eight RBIs while slugging .943 over his past 10 games for Tampa Bay.

LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Jays: 5-5, .231 batting average, 3.74 ERA, outscored by four runs. Rays: 5-5, .254 batting average, 5.48 ERA, outscored by three runs.

BLUE JAYS INJURIES: The Toronto Blue Jays transferred INF Brandon Drury from the 10-day disabled list to the 60-day disabled list on Tuesday.

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

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