The Tampa Bay Rays will look for a second straight victory over the Toronto Blue Jays to complete a series victory, as Alex Cobb (2-2, 3.86 ERA) takes on Joe Biagini (0-1, 3.38 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:10.
Rays Starting Lineup
Dickerson DH
Miller 2B
Longoria 3B
Morrison 1B
Souza RF
Rasmus LF
Robertson SS
Kiermaier CF
Sucre C
Blue Jays Starting Lineup
Pillar CF
Bautista RF
Martin C
Morales DH
Smoak 1B
Pearce LF
Travis 2B
Goins SS
Barney 3B
COBB LOOKS FOR STARTER TO GO DEEPER: Cobb said before his start that this stretch of 20 straight days playing as part of 34 games in 35 days will test the starting rotation's abilities to go deep in ballgames in order to help preserve the bullpen.
"I don't think that 6 [innings] is a mark that we're setting for ourselves as an accomplishment," Cobb said. "It's a usable number, but it's not something that's going to give us sustained success when we have a stretch like this. We have to be able to go to guys that we want to go to in certain situations, not guys that we need to [in order] to cover innings."
The Rays bullpen is one of the most used already in the American League, and the right-hander believes the rotation plays a major factor in trying to keep their arms fresh.
"As starters we have the ability to set that tone, and get it to our back end of the guys with hopefully a comfortable lead, and that's our goal when we go out," Cobb said. "We'll take six, but we're not happy with it. Anything less is us not doing our job. The goal is seven, at least, and hopefully, we'll be able to get a consistent week or two until we have that off day [May 18] of starters going deep."
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