ST. PETERSBURG Daryl Johnston Jersey , Fla. — Can the Tampa Bay Rays, the hottest team in baseball, finally get back to .500 for the season?
All that is stopping them Thursday are the American League West-leading and defending World Series champion Houston Astros, who come to Tropicana Field for a four-game series.
Tampa Bay (39-40) hasn’t just won five straight — its pitching owns a scoreless streak of 22 innings since Giancarlo Stanton homered off Vidal Nuno in Sunday’s game against the New York Yankees.
The Rays are on their fourth winning streak of at least five games this season and can reach .500 for the third time this season and first instance since they were 26-26 following a 1-0 win at Oakland on May 28.
And as well as the Rays are playing, holding opponents to one run or less eight times in their last 14 games, the Astros (54-28) are still 17-3 in their last 20 games. One of those losses, ending a 12-game win streak last week, was a 2-1 setback against these same Rays.
Tampa Bay began its relievers-as-starters experiment on May 19 and manager Kevin Cash calls them “openers.” Since then, the Rays have the lowest ERA in baseball at 2.87, edging the Yankees (2.96).
“The pitching’s been outstanding, keeping us in every single ballgame Jim McMahon Jersey ,” Cash told reporters. “It’s kind of how we’re built. We’ve got to take advantage of it when we get it. And we’re getting it here of late.”
A big part of Tampa Bay’s effectiveness is reliever-turned-opener Ryne Stanek (1-1, 1.99) who gets the ball first for the Rays on Thursday.
Stanek has been dominant in his unique role in June — 10 games, 13 innings, only four hits and no earned runs. He faced the Astros on back-to-back days last week, oddly enough as a starter and reliever, throwing a combined 2 2/3 innings of hitless, shutout baseball.
The Astros head to Tampa Bay after taking two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays. Houston closed out the series Wednesday afternoon when Alex Bregman hit a two-run homer in the ninth for a 7-6 win.
Bregman went 3-for-5 and was 9-for-14 with three homers against the Blue Jays.
“Bregman’s pretty locked in the last couple of days,” Houston left-hander Dallas Keuchel told reporters. “That’s what he provides for our team, moments in the clutch.”
It will be a homecoming for Astros starter Lance McCullers (8-3, 3.82), who was born in Tampa and graduated from Tampa’s Jesuit High School. Still just 24 Josh Sitton Jersey , McCullers has already set a career high for wins and hasn’t taken a loss in his last five starts. Houston is 11-5 in his starts this season.
McCullers has pitched at Tropicana twice before, once each in 2015 and 2016, and each time, he’s allowed four earned runs in six innings for an 0-2 record and a 6.00 ERA in his career against the Rays.
The relievers-as-starters strategy is just part of Cash’s unconventional approach.
In Tuesday’s 1-0 win against the Nationals, Cash played a pitcher at first base for one out, shifting reliever Jose Alvarado to first to avoid having to make a situational pitching change. Chaz Roe got the out with Alvarado manning first (with a runner to hold no less), and while Alvarado gave up two hits in his return to the mound, Sergio Romo got the final outs and the Rays outdueled Max Scherzer for a memorable win.
This four-game series wraps up a daunting 16-game run for the Rays in which they had seven games each against the Astros and Yankees (and two against the Nationals). And yet, somehow, they’re 7-5 in those games with four remaining.
From there, the schedule eases up Zane Gonzalez Jersey , as Tampa Bay goes on the road to face the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets. The Astros have two games at the Texas Rangers, but then close the first half of the season with 11 straight games at home before the All-Star break.
The New Orleans Saints have been ordered by an NFL arbitrator to pay more than $384,000 to a fired personal assistant to late team owner Tom Benson.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the Saints were ordered to pay Rodney Henry $100,000 plus interest for unpaid overtime and $94,300 plus for the violation of a clause in his employment contract stating he was entitled to a termination fee if anyone other than Benson himself fired Henry.
Arbitrator Harold Henderson also ordered the Saints to pay Henry's attorneys' fees of $190,000.
The Advocate newspaper first reported the ruling.
Henry's initial lawsuit in November 2015 accused the Saints not only of failing to pay overtime, but also of firing him for complaining that Benson's wife, Gayle, made racially insensitive comments about him. Henry, who is black, has not been awarded any damages for claims of racism.
Before the matter was referred to arbitration Sam Shields Jersey , which is not public, the Saints denied all allegations. In a written statement in January 2016, the Saints said Tom and Gayle Benson, who are white, considered Henry "part of their family," and were disappointed by his allegations of discrimination.
Gayle Benson is now the sole owner of the Saints and NBA's Pelicans, having inherited the clubs after her husband's death last March.
Henry was Benson's personal assistant dating back to the 1990s, serving in that role during two stints spanning close to 25 years.
The Saints could chose to appeal Henderson's ruling in federal court, but have not announced any intention to do so.
AP NFL website: ://pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: ://AP_NFL
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