Rays Continue Homestand; Marlins Hot Off Sweep

The Tampa Bay Rays (52-70) have won six of their last seven games, and ride that momentum into a four-game home series against the Boston Red Sox (69-54). After sweeping the Padres, Tampa Bay won two of three against the AL West leading Texas Rangers. This series against the Red Sox will cap off a ten-game home stand.

One of the Rays’ few bright spots this season has been Logan Forsythe, who is hitting .279 with 16 home runs and 41 RBI. After taking four games off due to back spasms, Forsythe returned Sunday with a three-run homer, his third home run in as many games.

Forsythe spoke about how good it felt to take two of three from a first place team in the Rangers. 

While the playoffs may be out of reach this season, Tampa Bay trails the AL East by 17 games, and is 14.5 games out of the wild card.

Rays’ second baseman Tim Beckham has the right attitude, he says he wants to bring this momentum into next season. 

Four-game set vs the @RedSox gets underway tonight. Morgan has the details for you. #RaysOnDemandhttps://t.co/i8yLliY2sp

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) August 22, 2016

First pitch from Tropicana Field is at 7:10 p.m.

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The Miami Marlins (65-59) sit 1.5 games out of the second spot in the National League wild card, the Fish come home after struggling in Cincinnati but sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates this past weekend. Now they welcome the red-hot Royals, defending World Series champions, for a three-game series before hosting the Padres over the weekend.

The Royals (64-60) have won eight in a row and 13 of their last 15 games. The pitching match ups for this series feature Andrew Cashner against Yordano Ventura Monday at 7:10 p.m., Jose Fernandez vs Dillon Gee Tuesday night at 7:10 p.m., and Tom Koehler-Edinson Volquez on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m.

All three Marlins victories against wild card contender Pittsburgh were by one or two runs, with Fernando Rodney saves in all three. Miami’s closer all season is AJ Ramos, who came off the disabled list and pitched a scoreless inning Sunday. Ramos says winning is the top priority, regardless of who gets the ball in the ninth.

Miami trails St. Louis for the second wild card spot, and trail the Giants by three games. Don Mattingly, like a typical manager, critiqued his guys after holding the high-scoring bats of the Pirates to eight runs in three games. With 38 games to go, the Marlins have to convert on their scoring chances, the hitters left 25 runners on base in Pittsburgh.

Up next, we fly home to play six games at @MarlinsPark.

See you Tuesday, #FishFamily! 👋 pic.twitter.com/JkTfSqFwiB

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) August 21, 2016