07/25/2008 - (Baseball Betting) - The Tampa Bay Rays hope to put an end to a seven-game road losing streak when the American League East co-leaders play the second of four consecutive contests with the Kansas City Royals tonight at Kauffman Stadium.
Tampa's struggles away from home continued in Thursday's opener, when the club was shut down by Royals righty Gil Meche in a 4-2 setback.
Meche (8-9) yielded just five hits and walked just one over seven scoreless innings before turning the game over to the Kansas City bullpen. Ron Mahay and Joakim Soria each allowed runs during their one-inning stints, but Soria still managed to record his 27th save.
Kansas City scored three times off Rays starter Matt Garza in the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run double by John Buck, en route to snapping a three-game slide.
Garza (8-6) allowed all four Kansas City runs on eight hits and walked four before exiting after five innings.
Jason Bartlett, activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, went 3-for-3 with a run scored for Tampa Bay.
Thursday's loss dropped the Rays to 19-26 on the road this season and into a first-place tie with idle Boston in the AL East standings. Tampa Bay hasn't won in an enemy ballpark since a 4-3 decision at Pittsburgh on June 29.
The Rays will attempt to get back on track tonight against the badly- struggling Brian Bannister. The Kansas City hurler is 0-2 with a horrid 10.71 earned run average over his last four starts and allowed at least five runs in every one of those outings.
Bannister lasted just three innings against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday and was roughed up for five runs on eight hits. The right-hander was spared a loss, however, as the Royals scored plenty of runs to pull out an 8-7 victory.
The 27-year-old was also hit hard in a July 4 matchup with the Rays in St. Petersburg. Tampa reached Bannister for seven runs (6 earned) on eight hits over five innings to hand the pitcher his eighth loss of 2008.
In his only other appearance against Tampa Bay, Bannister fired eight innings of one-run ball to lead the Royals to a 4-1 win at Tropicana Field on June 1, 2007.
Edwin Jackson also seeks a rebound from a poor last start when he takes the mound for the Rays this evening. The hard-throwing righty was tagged for six runs and eight hits in just 4 1/3 innings to take a loss in Toronto this past Sunday.
Jackson had been throwing well prior to that showing and defeated Bannister and the Royals in that previously-mentioned July 4 clash. He limited Kansas City to two runs -- one earned -- and just four hits while matching a season high with eight innings pitched.
In three lifetime games (2 starts) versus the Royals, Jackson is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in 11 2/3 innings of work.
Tampa Bay won three times during its four-game series with the Royals at Tropicana Field earlier this month and is 6-4 in its last nine matchups against Kansas City. Since the start of the 2006 season, the Rays have taken 11 of the 18 meetings between these teams.
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