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Rays-Royals Preview

Jul 19, 2009 - 4:47 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Tampa Bay (49-41) at Kansas City (37-52), 2:10 p.m. EDT

Bullpens are the reason that the Tampa Bay Rays are on the verge of another sweep of the Kansas City Royals.

The Rays look to improve to 6-0 against the Royals this season in Sunday's finale of a weekend series at Kauffman Stadium.

Tampa Bay (50-41) took three games at home against Kansas City from June 2-4. The Rays' only previous road sweep of the Royals came in a four-game set July 27-30, 2000.

The story of this series has been relief pitching. Five Tampa Bay relievers threw 3 2-3 scoreless innings Friday in an 8-7 victory, and the same number of Rays relievers yielded an unearned run over three innings Saturday in a 4-2 win.

Kansas City's bullpen, meanwhile, posted a 10.50 ERA in the two games, with Juan Cruz blowing save chances in the eighth inning both times. The veteran right-hander has lost four in a row after winning 11 consecutive decisions over a span of almost two seasons.

"Obviously, things get streaky in this game," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "The guy's got a great arm. I said it before the game, I like the way our players are right now. I think they know it's time."

The Royals (37-53) have had trouble getting a lead to closer Joakim Soria, who has 14 saves and a 1.88 ERA.

"I want Soria in the game, too. But I'm not going to sell my soul to the devil for a guy that's already had two major injuries," Kansas City manager Trey Hillman said. "I'm not going run the risk of injuring Soria when the rest of the bullpen on any given day quite frankly has been shaky."

Tampa Bay's B.J. Upton has five hits in this series and is 10 for 21 (.476) against Kansas City this year.

The Rays bullpen could be a key factor again Sunday, judging by how Matt Garza (6-7, 3.73 ERA) has fared against AL Central opponents. The right-hander, who spent the first two years of his career with Minnesota, is 2-14 with a 5.13 ERA in 22 starts versus that division.

Garza is 0-4 with a 4.02 ERA in five starts versus the Royals. Kansas City's David DeJesus (6 for 16), Alex Gordon (4 for 10) and Yuniesky Betancourt (5 for 8) have enjoyed success against him.

Garza will try to avoid dropping his third straight start. He allowed three runs over 6 1-3 innings on July 11 in a 7-2 loss to Oakland.

The Royals' Luke Hochevar (5-3, 5.34) will attempt to win four starts in a row for the first time in his career. He gave up five runs over six innings of an 8-6 victory in his last outing July 9 at Boston.

The right-hander went 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in his only two starts versus the Rays - both last season.