Tampa Bay Rays (96-64, second in the AL East) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (65-95, fourth in the AL East)
Toronto; Saturday, 3 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Rays: Ryan Yarbrough (11-5, 4.08 ERA) Blue Jays: Trent Thornton (5-9, 5.00 ERA)
LINE: Rays -240; over/under is 9 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: Tampa Bay enters the matchup as winners of their last four games.
The Blue Jays are 31-43 against teams from the AL East. Toronto ranks last in the majors in hitting with a .236 batting average, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. leads the team with an average of .272.
The Rays are 44-30 against the rest of their division. Tampa Bay is slugging .433 as a unit. Austin Meadows leads the team with a slugging percentage of .563. The Rays won the last meeting 6-2. Oliver Drake secured his fifth victory and Tommy Pham went 1-for-5 with a home run and two RBIs for Tampa Bay. T.J. Zeuch registered his second loss for Toronto.
TOP PERFORMERS: Randal Grichuk leads the Blue Jays with 64 extra base hits and is batting .233. Cavan Biggio has 13 hits and is batting .342 over the last 10 games for Toronto.
Meadows leads the Rays with 154 hits and has 89 RBIs. Ji-Man Choi is 8-for-34 with two doubles, three home runs and eight RBIs over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay.
LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Jays: 6-4, .242 batting average, 6.13 ERA, outscored by 10 runs
Rays: 7-3, .241 batting average, 3.43 ERA, outscored opponents by eight runs
Blue Jays Injuries: Matt Shoemaker: (knee), Tim Mayza: (ucl), Anthony Kay: (back), Ryan Borucki: (elbow), Lourdes Gurriel Jr.: (appendectomy), Devon Travis: (knee), Bo Bichette: (concussion).
Rays Injuries: Hoby Milner: (back/neck), Jose Alvarado: (elbow), Yandy Diaz: (foot), Ji-Man Choi: (leg).
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.