Game time: 7:10 p.m.
TV/Radio: Sportsnet East, Ontario, West & Pacific, 6:30 p.m. ET. Sportsnet 590 The Fan.
Starters: Carlos Villanueva (6-1, 3.19 ERA) vs. Alex Cobb (5-8, 4.60 ERA).
Blue Jays lineup: 1. Davis LF | 2. Rasmus CF | 3. Encarnacion DH | 4. Escobar SS | 5. Cooper 1B | 6. Johnson 2B | 7. Mathis C | 8. Gose RF | 9. Hechavarria 3B
The game: Losers of seven of nine overall, Toronto (53-56) will try to bounce back Wednesday night in Tampa behind Carlos Villanueva. After winning a career-best four consecutive starts, the right-hander surrendered four runs and seven hits over six innings of a 5-3 loss at Seattle last Wednesday to suffer his first defeat of the season.
“It’s very frustrating,” he told MLB’s official website. “I thought today I had the best fastball command I’ve had maybe since I started. The problem, the only problem, was my slider to lefties, the backdoor slider, I just couldn’t get it down and in enough.”
In his lone start versus Tampa Bay, Villanueva was tagged for a career-high eight runs and nine hits over 2 2-3 innings of a 9-1 road loss Aug. 3, 2011. He’s also struggled in three relief appearances against the Rays this season, yielding seven runs in three innings. Six of those runs came during a 12-2 defeat April 18.
Villanueva can’t be looking forward to facing Ben Zobrist, who’s taken him deep three times in five at-bats.
The injury-ravaged Blue Jays will have to make due once again without the services of Brett Lawrie, who will miss his fourth straight game with a rib cage injury. Rookie Adeiny Hechavarria will play third base in his place and bat ninth.
The Rays will turn to Alex Cobb, who snapped a career worst-tying three-start losing streak with an impressive display last Wednesday. The right-hander scattered four hits and struck out six over seven innings of one-run ball in a 4-1 victory at Oakland.
“That was more what he looked like in July last year when he came up and helped us out,” manager Joe Maddon said of Cobb, who went 3-2 with a 3.42 ERA over nine starts in 2011. “Better command of his fastball, threw some really good curveballs. Changeup had more depth.”
Cobb, who has never faced Toronto, has compiled a 6.75 ERA while losing each of his last three home starts.
It’s unknown if he’ll have to face Brett Lawrie, who missed his third straight contest Tuesday with tightness in his rib cage. The third baseman is mired in a 3-for-21 (.143) slump.
Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi is with the team in Tampa Bay. Follow him on Twitter (@shidavidi), leading up to our Live Tracker live chat at 7 p.m ET.
Tonight on
#bluejays Central, my feature on@kyledrabek4. Also, a candid Carlos Villanueva talks about why he had to leave the team for DR— Barry Davis (@SNBarryDavis) August 8, 2012
