Tonight at 8:15 p.m. ET, the Tampa Bay Rays (47-53) and St. Louis Cardinals (54-45) kick off a quick two-game interleague series live from Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The game can be live streamed for free here. Tampa Bay fans can hear all of the action on WDAE 620 while St. Louis fans can do the same on KMOX 1120.
Tampa Bay came out of the All-Star break hot by sweeping the Twins in Minnesota and now they finish up their five-game road trip over the next two days while St. Louis took two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers after the break and now closes out its five-game homestand.
The Rays enter play in fifth place in the American League East and are eight games behind the division-leading Baltimore Orioles while the Cardinals are in second place in the National League Central, a half-game behind the Milwaukee Brewers.
Jake Odorizzi (5-8, 4.01 ERA) toes the rubber for Tampa Bay while St. Louis counters with Adam Wainwright, who is 12-4 with an MLB-best 1.83 ERA.
Wainwright faced Odorizzi on June 10 at Tropicana Field and beat him 1-0 by tossing seven scoreless innings while Odorizzi tossed 7.1 frames of one-run ball. Wainwright will man the mound for the first time since starting the All-Star Game as the team opted to rest him in the first series back from the break.
"I think they're just being real cautious of making sure that I'm going to be prepared to go the rest, because this is going to be a pretty torrid race through the end of the season," Wainwright told MLB.com.
Odorizzi takes the mound at the same stadium he came to root on the Cardinals as a fan, and he expects it to be a great night.
"Just the atmosphere alone will be very cool," Odorizzi said via the Rays' official website. "It will be a fun atmosphere and fun game for me in general."
Odorizzi will face a Cardinals lineup that is anchored by first baseman Matt Adams, who is second in the NL with a .323 batting average and has 12 homers and 43 RBI this season. Adams also ranks fifth in the NL with a .527 slugging percentage.
St. Louis shortstop Jhonny Peralta leads the team in homers (14) while outfielder Matt Holliday paces it in RBI (50).
Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria leads the team with 11 homers and 48 RBI while first baseman James Loney leads the Rays with a .285 batting average.
It's the beginning of a brief interleague series when the Rays and Cardinals battle at Busch Stadium tonight in St. Louis.
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