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Devil Rays make first trip of the season to Camden Yards

May 8, 2007 - 1:39 PM Tampa Bay (14-17) at Baltimore (14-18) 7:05 pm EDT

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- The Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Baltimore Orioles will try to avoid falling too far out of the American League East race when they meet in the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday.

One week into May, the Devil Rays are 6 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the East and the Orioles, who have lost 11 of 14 games, are seven games off the pace.

Jae Seo (1-2, 8.19 ERA) gets the start for Tampa Bay and will try to build on his last outing. The righthander allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings last Wednesday but did not get a decision in the team's 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.

It was a much needed rebound for Seo, who had allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 26.

Jeremy Guthrie (1-1, 5.87) is the likely starter for the Orioles, who have had trouble keeping starting pitchers healthy this season. Already without Kris Benson and Jaret Wright, the Orioles lost Adam Loewen to the disabled list last week with a stress fracture in his elbow.

Guthrie has appeared in seven games for the Orioles this season, including one start. In a loss to the Oakland Athletics on April 24, he allowed one earned run and four hits in five innings.

The Baltimore bullpen has been struggling. After allowing runs in just eight of 17 games to start the season, the Orioles' bullpen has given up runs in 12 of the last 15 games and has a 6.80 ERA in that span. In Monday's 10-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians, the bullpen allowed nine runs and eight hits in three innings.

Tampa Bay's B.J. Upton has a nine-game hitting streak and is batting .471 (16-for-34) with three home runs and seven RBI during that span. Upton leads the American league with a .371 batting average.

Tampa Bay leads the majors with 12 come-from-behind victories this season.

The Orioles have won two of three meetings with Tampa Bay this season.