Tampa Bay Rays (85-66, third in AL East) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (69-83, fourth in AL East)

Toronto; Thursday, 7:07 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Rays: Ryne Stanek (2-3, 2.50 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 73 strikeouts) Blue Jays: Sam Gaviglio (3-8, 5.25 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 97 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: The Blue Jays are 7-14 in games started by Gaviglio. Toronto’s lineup has 201 home runs this season, Justin Smoak paces them with 24 homers. The Rays look to preserve a five-game winning streak. The Tampa Bay offence has compiled a .260 batting average as a team this season, Joey Wendle leads the team with a mark of .302. In their last meeting on Sept. 5, Aaron Sanchez earned the win in a 10-3 victory for the Blue Jays.

TOP PERFORMERS: C.J. Cron has 27 home runs this season, 13th in the American League. Kevin Kiermaier has three home runs and seven RBIs while slugging .744 over his past 10 games for Tampa Bay. Teoscar Hernandez is hitting .240 with 110 hits and 20 home runs in 125 games this year for the Blue Jays. Randal Grichuk has four home runs and five RBIs while slugging .615 over his past 10 games for Toronto.

LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 8-2, .281 batting average, 2.47 ERA, outscored opponents by 21 runs. Blue Jays: 5-5, .213 batting average, 3.81 ERA, outscored by six runs.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.