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Mariners-Rays Preview

May 13, 2010 - 9:26 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Seattle (13-20) at Tampa Bay (24-10), 7:10 p.m. EDT

Led by one of baseball's strongest rotations, the Tampa Bay Rays boast the best record in the major leagues.

The Seattle Mariners, plagued by lack of offense, discovered just how overwhelming that starting pitching staff is a week ago.

Returning home after an impressive road trip that included a sweep of Seattle, Wade Davis looks to lead the Rays to their third consecutive win when they face the Mariners on Friday night.

Despite having Oakland's Dallas Braden pitch a perfect game against them Sunday, the Rays (24-10) went 6-3 on a West Coast trip. Tampa Bay completed the trek with a 4-3 victory over the Angels on Wednesday, taking a series in Anaheim for the first time since May 1999.

"We just have to see if we can take this momentum back home and get ready for (the next) series," left fielder Carl Crawford told the Rays' official website.

Tampa Bay opened the trip by taking three straight at Safeco Field from May 4-6, limiting the Mariners to five runs and a .184 average. Seattle (13-21) is last in the league with 114 runs and a .334 slugging percentage.

Tampa Bay had no trouble offensively in the series, scoring 21 runs. Evan Longoria led the way with a homer and four RBIs, while Crawford went 6 for 13 with a home run, two doubles and four runs.

Those two finished the trip on a strong note. Longoria went 5 for 15 with six RBIs in the last three games and Crawford was 5 for 10 with two runs in the last two.

"It's all about effort and want-to, and our guys have a lot of that right now," manager Joe Maddon said. "I'm proud of them."

Maddon will give the ball to Davis (3-2, 3.18 ERA), who has been a key part of a Tampa Bay rotation that tops the AL with a 2.78 ERA, in the series opener.

Davis is coming off his first loss since his season debut, allowing three runs in five innings of a 4-2 defeat to the A's on Saturday. The right-hander was 3-0 with a 1.96 ERA in his previous four outings.

In his only career start against the Mariners on Sept. 23, Davis gave up four runs and struck out six in 5 2-3 innings of a 5-4 win, but didn't receive a decision.

Seattle counters with Doug Fister (2-1, 1.71), who ranks third in the majors in ERA and has walked six in 42 innings. He made his big league debut against the Rays on Aug. 8, throwing a scoreless inning of relief during Seattle's 10-4 loss.

The right-hander pitched well enough to win Saturday against the Angels, giving up three runs in seven innings, but Seattle fell 4-3 in 10.

The Mariners have lost Fister's last three starts despite him posting a 1.96 ERA, with Seattle backing him with eight runs of support in those contests.

The Mariners have lost 10 of 12 and are coming off an especially discouraging 6-5 defeat in Baltimore.

Seattle led 5-1 before the Orioles scored five runs in the eighth. The Mariners had a chance to tie it, but Corey Patterson threw out Josh Wilson at the plate to end the game.

"Obviously, that's a tough loss," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "We ended up having one bad inning that spoiled the day."