The Tampa Bay Rays return home tonight to Tropicana Field and will open a 3-game set against Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox. After a slight bump in the road, Sale is back to his dominant form. The lefty is 2-1 in his last 3 turns, with a 1.56 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP, and last faced the Rays on Saturday when he gave up 6 hits with 8 Ks and no runs in a 9-0 Red Sox win. Matt Andriese gets the nod for Tampa. Andriese has been awful in his last 3 starts, going 0-2, with a 14.09 ERA and a 2.48 WHIP – and that’s not a typo. When Tampa Bay put Andriese up against Sale last Saturday, he gave up 8 runs on 7 hits and couldn’t make it out of the second inning. The Rays are 0-4 in his last 4 starts and 0-5 in their last 5 games against southpaws. That spells doom when you have to face a flame throwing lefty like Sale.
TONIGHT’S PICK: BOSTON RED SOX