Toronto at Tampa Bay, Aug 2-3

The Jays visited the Tampa dome back in May, and it went about as well as it usually does. The Jays lost the opener when Kevin Gausman ran into trouble in the eighth inning of a 2-2 tie, and Tim Mayza could get only two of the three outs needed to save the situation..The Jays bounced back to win the next day behind Hyun-Jin Ryu and four relievers. But the Rays blanked Toronto on four hits to hand Alek Manoah his first L of the season in the finale.

The Jays have an ugly 84-130 record all-time in Tampa Bay. That's a horrendous .393 winning percentage. The only AL city where Toronto has played worse would be Houston, and Houston has only been an AL city for the last decade (Toronto is 11-22 at Enron Memorial.) The Jays have a better record in New York and Boston than they do in Tampa Bay, despite the fact that Tampa Bay, for almost half of their history, was an historically bad baseball team. Bad even by the standards of expansion franchises. The Rays are the only AL team ever to lose at least 90 games ten years in a row (the Phillies also accomplished this non-achievement from 1936 through 1945.)

Tis a puzzlement indeed.

I figure  if they can get out of Florida with a split, you count your blessings and it's On To Minnesota.

Matchups

Tue 2 Aug - Gausman (7-8, 3.30)  vs Rasmussen (6-3, 3.17)

Wed 3 Aug - Kikuchi (4-5, 4.89) vs Still Pondering (?-?, ?.??)