2020-08-23 13:10:00 EDT
The Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays meet in an AL East division matchup in MLB action from Tropicana Field on Sunday.
The Toronto Blue Jays will try to rebound after a 2-1 loss in 10 innings to the Rays on Saturday. Cavan Biggio had an RBI while Travis Shaw, Teoscar Hernandez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Joe Panik each had a base hit as none of Toronto’s five hits went for extra bases in the losing effort. Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up one run on three hits while striking out six over five innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Anthony Bass took the loss in relief, falling to 1-1 on the year. Trent Thornton will start here and is 0-0 with a 13.50 ERA and 4 strikeouts this season. In his career, Thornton is 1-1 with a 6.43 ERA and 22 strikeouts against Tampa Bay.
The Tampa Bay Rays will look to build on their victory over the Blue Jays on Saturday. Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot each had an RBI to make up Tampa Bay’s offense as a team in the winning effort. Jose Martinez went 2 for 3 while Joey Wendle and Willy Adames each had a base hit as well for the Rays in victory. Aaron Slegers threw four shutout innings while racking up five strikeouts, not factoring in the decision. Anthony Banda got the win in relief to improve to 1-0 on the year. Josh Fleming will start here and is making his major league debut after posting a 12-7 record with a 3.57 ERA between AA and AAA last season.
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This feels like a lot to ask of Thornton to pitch on just two days rest, even if he didn’t go past an inning and 32 pitches in that start. Thornton still gave up six runs on five hits in 0.2 innings and he hasn’t looked anything close to reliable and the offense has had to bail him out for the most part. Fleming making his debut here feels a bit iffy, but if he has a short leash, the Rays are used to going through a chunk of their bullpen on the regular, and while the Jays have been the hotter team, Thornton puts them behind the 8-ball early. I’ll take the Rays here.
