Usually trips to Tampa Bay don't go well for this team...
We shall see. The Bluebirds managed to split their ten game homestand with a sweep of the Orioles (satisfying!), and now head off on a ten game road trip that will see them go to Tampa Bay (starting tonight), Boston on Monday, then Cleveland for four. Jose Bautista will not play tonight and might not appear at all this weekend with a sore shoulder. Josh Thole is back and will catch R.A. Dickey tonight. There's a good chance Michael Saunders will make his Blue Jay debut at some point in this series also.
The 8-8 Rays meanwhile expect first-baseman James Loney to come off the disabled list and play Friday night. Tampa has a host of players out with injuries at the moment, including reliever Jake McGee, starting pitchers Alex Cobb and Matt Moore, outfielder/something-er-other John Jaso and some guy named C.J. Riefenhauser. (I can't ignore a name that awesome).
Rays Player To Watch
Outfielder Steven Souza is off to a fabulous start, leading the team with four home runs and eleven RBIs with a tidy .268/.349/.536 batting line. He is also prone to the strikeout (23 in 56 ABs) so hopefully, ya know, that second thing is more common than that first thing. To the pitching matchups!
Friday: R.A. Dickey (0-1, 3.26) v. Drew Smyly (NR *first 2015 start) -- 7:10 ET
Saturday: Daniel Norris (1-1, 6.08) v. To Be Determined Man! (infinity divided by 0) -- 6:10 ET
Sunday: Mark Buehrle (3-0, 4.00) v. Chris Archer (2-2, 1.07) -- 1:10 ET
Have at it.