Rays vs. Jays
When/where: 7:10 tonight; Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg
TV/radio: Sun Sports; 620-AM, 680-AM (Spanish)
Tickets: $9-$210 at box office, Ticketmaster, raysbaseball.com, team store in Tampa; $3 surcharge within five hours of game.
Starting pitchers:
Rays: LH David Price (9-9, 3.76)
Jays: LH Ricky Romero (8-9, 3.08)
Watch for …
Price check: Price is coming off a rough July in which he went 1-3, 5.04 in five starts. On the other hand, he is 8-0, 1.99 in nine career starts vs. Toronto, beating them most recently on May 5 at the Trop.
Mr. Ricky: Romero is the Jays' ace, with 15 quality starts in 21 outings, including 18 Ks in his last two games, though he, too, had a tough July, going 1-2, 4.31. He is 3-3, 3.69 in seven starts vs. the Rays.
Key matchups
Rays vs. Romero
Johnny Damon 7-for-13, HR
Evan Longoria 4-for-11
Ben Zobrist 7-for-18
Jays vs. Price
Jose Bautista 8-for-19, 3 HRs
Aaron Hill 4-for-20
Adam Lind 6-for-27
On deck
Wednesday: Blue Jays, 7:10 p.m., Sun Sports. Rays — James Shields (9-9, 3.03); Jays — Carlos Villanueva (6-2, 3.60)
Thursday: Blue Jays, 12:10 p.m., Sun Sports. Rays — Wade Davis (8-7, 4.62); Jays — Brett Cecil (4-4, 4.34)
Friday: A's, 7:10 p.m., Sun Sports. Rays — Jeff Niemann (5-4, 3.51); A's — Guillermo Moscoso (4-5, 3.41)
Saturday: A's, 7:10 p.m., Sun Sports. Rays — Alex Cobb (3-1, 2.79); A's — Brandon McCarthy (4-5, 3.58)
Race of the day
The Rays are still looking to catch the first-place Red Sox and wild-card leading Yankees (and next-in-line Angels), but if they look down they'll see they're just 1½ games ahead of the fourth-place Jays. The Rays haven't been lower than third place post-All-Star break since 2007.
Contest of the day
3B Evan Longoria, left, and LHP David Price held a contest on Twitter last week to see who could increase their total of followers to 53,000 first. Longoria won, but Price figured he had a built-in advantage that boost his appeal: "He has commercials."
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