St. Louis Cardinals (64-65, fourth in the NL Central) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (61-67, fourth in the AL East)
Tampa, Florida; Friday, 7:35 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (6-9, 4.99 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 80 strikeouts); Rays: Adrian Houser (6-4, 2.67 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 60 strikeouts)
BOTTOM LINE: The Tampa Bay Rays look to end their four-game home skid with a win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tampa Bay is 61-67 overall and 32-33 at home. The Rays have the eighth-ranked team on-base percentage in the AL at .313.
St. Louis has gone 29-35 on the road and 64-65 overall. The Cardinals have a 25-9 record in games when they hit at least two home runs.
The teams square off Friday for the second time this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Junior Caminero has 21 doubles and 35 home runs while hitting .255 for the Rays. Brandon Lowe is 8 for 36 with a double and two home runs over the past 10 games.
Alec Burleson leads the Cardinals with a .285 batting average, and has 20 doubles, a triple, 15 home runs, 33 walks and 59 RBIs. Lars Nootbaar is 15 for 41 with a home run and four RBIs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 4-6, .239 batting average, 5.52 ERA, outscored by 19 runs
Cardinals: 4-6, .251 batting average, 4.85 ERA, outscored by five runs
INJURIES: Rays: Yandy Diaz: day-to-day (hamstring), Stuart Fairchild: 60-Day IL (oblique), Ha-Seong Kim: 10-Day IL (back), Taylor Walls: 10-Day IL (groin), Jonny Deluca: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Jonathan Aranda: 10-Day IL (wrist), Manuel Rodriguez: 60-Day IL (forearm), Hunter Bigge: 60-Day IL (lat), Richie Palacios: 60-Day IL (knee), Shane McClanahan: 60-Day IL (tricep), Alex Faedo: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nathan Lavender: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Cardinals: Brendan Donovan: 10-Day IL (groin), Victor Scott II: 10-Day IL (ankle), Nolan Arenado: 10-Day IL (shoulder), John King: 15-Day IL (oblique), Zack Thompson: 60-Day IL (lat)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
The Associated Press
