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Crawford, Devil Rays face tough test against LHP Bedard

Aug 5, 2007 - 1:18 PM Baltimore (51-58) at Tampa Bay (42-67) 1:40 pm EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) - Carl Crawford and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finally broke through against the Baltimore Orioles. However, they will have a tougher time on Sunday.

Crawford and the Devil Rays face Baltimore ace Erik Bedard on Sunday as they look to take the rubber game of the three-game series.

Crawford has been on a tear lately and it continued on Saturday's 9-2 win . The speedy left fielder had three hits, drove in a pair of runs and scored three times as Tampa Bay snapped an eight-game losing streak to Baltimore.

Crawford, who is hitting .411 (23-for-56) in his last 15 games, would like to celebrate his 26th birthday with a good performance against the American League's Pitcher of the Month for July.

Bedard (11-4, 3.05 ERA) has won five straight starts and has not lost since June 10. The lefthander was dominant in July, going 5-0 with a 2.21 ERA and has allowed two runs or less in nine of his last 10 starts.

Tampa Bay will counter with Andy Sonnanstine (1-6, 5.55), who has been the polar opposite of Bedard. Sonnanstine has not won since picking up his first-career win on June 10 - a span of nine starts.

Sonnanstine, who has allowed 17 runs over his last 25 1/3 innings, yielded four runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings against Toronto on Monday.