Rays and Padres meet in series rubber match
San Diego Padres (77-61, third in the NL West) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (67-68, fourth in the AL East)
St. Petersburg, Florida; Sunday, 1:40 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Padres: Dylan Cease (12-10, 3.57 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 197 strikeouts); Rays: Ryan Pepiot (7-6, 3.61 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 110 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Padres -135, Rays +114; over/under is 7 runs
BOTTOM LINE: Both the Tampa Bay Rays and the San Diego Padres are looking for a series win with a victory on Sunday.
Tampa Bay has gone 35-35 at home and 67-68 overall. The Rays are 27-11 in games when they did not allow a home run.
San Diego has a 77-61 record overall and a 40-29 record in road games. Padres hitters are batting a collective .265, the highest team batting average in MLB play.
The teams meet Sunday for the third time this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Yandy Diaz has a .276 batting average to lead the Rays, and has 26 doubles, a triple and 12 home runs. Jonny Deluca is 11-for-36 with a home run and four RBI over the last 10 games.
Jurickson Profar has 24 doubles and 21 home runs for the Padres. Luis Arraez is 16-for-42 with two doubles, a home run and five RBI over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 4-6, .233 batting average, 4.80 ERA, outscored by 13 runs
Padres: 5-5, .263 batting average, 4.44 ERA, outscored by one run
INJURIES: Rays: Colin Poche: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Yandy Diaz: day-to-day (knee), Peter Anderson Fairbanks: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Zack Littell: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Richard Palacios: 10-Day IL (knee), Jacob Waguespack: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Shane McClanahan: 60-Day IL (forearm)
Padres: Kyle Higashioka: day-to-day (illness), Yu Darvish: 15-Day IL (groin), Fernando Tatis Jr.: 60-Day IL (quadricep), Ha-Seong Kim: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Stephen Kolek: 15-Day IL (forearm), Wandy Peralta: 15-Day IL (aductor), Luis Patino: 60-Day IL (elbow)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.