The Tampa Bay Rays and Colorado Rockies meet Monday night in Colorado, and it is their only game against each other this season. The first pitch is set for 8:40 p.m. ET, with Ian Seymour listed to start for the Rays and Michael Lorenzen scheduled for the Rockies.
That is why this one lands on the schedule with extra weight. The Rays arrive at 65-46 and still lead the AL East, but they are only 24-28 on the road, a split that makes every trip matter a little more. Colorado is 45-67 overall and 27-29 at home, but it is also coming off a weekend sweep of the Kansas City Royals, so Monday begins with both clubs carrying recent results that point in different directions.
Seymour has given Tampa Bay a useful season so far, going 7-3 with a 4.37 ERA in 78.1 innings. Lorenzen has had a harder year for Colorado at 3-9 with a 6.54 ERA in 104.2 innings. Those numbers matter because this matchup is not part of a series that can be corrected two nights later; once the teams are done Monday, they will not see each other again in the regular season.
The Rays also come in trying to put Sunday behind them after a 9-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox, a game in which Anthony Kay threw 6.1 scoreless innings and Andrew Benintendi, Everson Pereira and Miguel Vargas each homered. Griffin Jax allowed one earned run on four hits with eight strikeouts in five innings, but Tampa Bay left 10 runners on base before Ben Williamson finally got them on the board with a solo home run in the ninth. That kind of missed chance has been part of the reason the Rays have been better at home than away, even while staying in front in the AL East with a 2.5-game lead over the New York Yankees.
Colorado, meanwhile, enters after a very different kind of Sunday. Kyle Freeland threw the first complete game of his career in a win over the Kansas City Royals, allowing five hits and one run while striking out eight to earn his third victory of the season. Jake McCarthy also drove in three runs with a homer in a six-run sixth inning, a burst that helped the Rockies finish a sweep at home and gave them a little momentum heading into a rare interleague date. Fans can watch the game on Colorado Rockies (NEW), MLB.TV – Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Rays.
For the Rays, the test is straightforward: protect a division lead while trying to look more like the team that has been steady at home than the one that has stumbled on the road. For the Rockies, it is a chance to turn a sweep into something more by beating an opponent they will not face again this year.
