Rays vs. Red Sox
When/where: 7:10 tonight; Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg
TV/radio: Sun Sports; 620-AM, 680-AM (Spanish)
Starting pitchers:
Rays
RH Wade Davis (9-9, 4.50)
Red Sox
RH John Lackey (12-11, 6.11)
Watch for ...
Wading in: Davis is coming off a win against Baltimore and has been pitching well at home, with a 2.89 ERA and six quality starts over his past seven at the Trop. He is 0-2 with an 11.12 ERA in three starts vs. Boston.
Something lacking: Lackey battles but without much success given the highest ERA (6.61) and OPS (.852) for all pitchers with 140 innings, plus a .302 average. He is 12-5, 3.81 vs. the Rays, though 4-3, 5.98 at the Trop.
Key matchups
Rays vs. Lackey
Reid Brignac 6-for-17
Johnny Damon 24-for-65
Ben Zobrist 7-for-19
Red Sox vs. Davis
David Ortiz 2-for-5 HR
Dustin Pedroia 3-for-7
Marco Scutaro 0-for-5
On deck
Saturday: vs. Red Sox, 7:10 Sun Sports. Rays — Jeremy Hellickson (12-10, 2.90); Red Sox — Kyle Weiland (0-1, 6.75)
Sunday: vs. Red Sox, 1:40 Sun Sports. Rays — James Shields (14-10, 2.77); Red Sox — Jon Lester (15-6, 2.93)
Marc Topkin, Times staff writer
Quote of the day
"If we could get ourselves within striking distance, then I think people are going to start feeling our breath."
Joe Maddon, Rays manager
Milestone hunt
With his next home run, B.J. Upton, above left, and D'backs OF Justin will become the first brothers in MLB history to have 20 homer-20-steal performances in the same season. They'll be the seventh set of siblings with 20 homers each, joining these bash brothers:
Aaron/Bret Boone 2002-03
Brian/Marcus Giles 2003
Jason/Jeremy Giambi 2002
Carlos/Lee May 1973
Bob/Irish Meusel 1925
Joe/Vince DiMaggio 1941
Number of the day
1 .4
Percent chance of Rays making the playoffs, per CoolStandings.com, based on computer simulations.
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