NEW YORK — The New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays will experience what it’s like to look across the field and feel as if they’re staring into a mirror for the last time this season on Sunday afternoon when the teams play the rubber game of a three-game series at Citi Field.
The Mets’ Chris Flexen (0-1 www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-sylvester-williams-jersey , 10.80 ERA) is scheduled to face the Rays’ Nathan Eovaldi (2-3, 3.92) in a battle of right-handers.
The Rays posted a 3-0 win Saturday afternoon when ace left-hander Blake Snell tossed 7 1/3 strong innings and Wilson Ramos collected two RBIs.
The Mets and Rays have combined for just nine runs in the first two games, four of which were registered when New York’s Jose Bautista hit a walk-off grand slam to lift the Mets to a 5-1 win on Friday night. The teams had just eight hits in 77 plate appearances with runners on base on Friday and Saturday.
Such struggles have become routine for the Rays and Mets, who ranked 26th and 27th in the majors in runs scored after Saturday’s game — during which Tampa Bay moved past New York.
The offensive woes have threatened to negate the strong work of both pitching staffs. The Rays (44-44) have a 2.77 ERA since May 19, when they began infusing their rotation with the “opener” in select games.
“I think that with the way we’ve pitched www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-kerryon-johnson-jersey , we find ourselves being in a lot of ballgames,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before Saturday’s game. “But when the bats are quiet, it just becomes really, really tough to find ways to win ballgames.”
Starting pitchers for the Mets (35-50), meanwhile www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-tracy-walker-jersey , have a 2.25 ERA in the last six games and a 3.94 ERA this year. New York’s three most utilized starters — Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz — are 11-16 despite a 3.06 ERA in 51 games.
“If we win just five games of deGrom’s and Matz’s and Wheeler’s — and that’s being conservative — we’re right where we want to be,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said after Saturday’s game. “And it just hasn’t happened.”
Flexen will make his first start of the season and his first appearance since June 24, when he took the loss after giving up one run in one inning as the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-7 in 11 innings. He hasn’t started in the majors since last Oct 1, when Flexen allowed six runs (five earned) in 1 1/3 innings as New York fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 11-0 in the season finale.
Eovaldi didn’t factor into the decision in his most recent start Monday www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-da_shawn-hand-jersey , when he gave up two runs in six innings as the Rays fell to the Miami Marlins 3-2 in 10 innings. He has allowed two runs or fewer three times in seven starts this season but has surrendered at least four runs three other times.
Flexen has never faced the Rays. Eovaldi is 1-4 with a 5.01 ERA in nine career starts against the Mets.
The Latest on a suspected drunken-driving crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and another man (all times local):
5 p.m.
A man being held in a suspected drunken-driving crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson and his Uber driver had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times Indiana’s legal limit immediately after Sunday’s deadly crash.
A probable cause affidavit filed Sunday in Marion Superior Court under the first name Manuel Orrego-Savala gave police states that a breath test administered at the scene found the 37-year-old man’s blood-alcohol content was 0.239 percent. Indiana’s legal limit is 0.08 percent.
Two vials of blood were later drawn from Orrego-Savala for testing. He remains jailed and prosecutors are weighing potential criminal charges against him in the crash that killed the 26-year-old Jackson and Jeffrey Monroe of Avon, Indiana.
State Police say Orrego-Savala is a citizen of Guatemala who’s been deported twice from the U.S.
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2:25 p.m.
An Indiana congressman says ”all Americans” should be angry that a suspected drunken-driving crash which killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson was allegedly caused by a man police say has been twice deported from the U.S.
Republican Rep. Todd Rokita tweeted Monday about Sunday’s crash that killed the 26-year-old Jackson and his Uber driver, Jeffrey Monroe of Avon, Indiana, saying ”this news should make all Americans angry.”
Monroe was transporting Jackson for the ride-hailing company when police say he stopped along Interstate 70 after Jackson became ill.
Both men were standing outside Monroe’s car when police say a pickup truck driven by 37-year-old Manuel Orrego-Savala struck and killed them.
Police say he’s a citizen of Guatemala who was deported in 2007 and 2009. He has not been charged in the crash.
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11:23 a.m.
Police say a man being held in a suspected drunken driving crash that killed Indianapolis Colts linebacker Edwin Jackson has twice been deported from the U.S.
Indiana State Police said Monday that 37-year-old Manuel Orrego-Savala is a citizen of Guatemala and gave officers a fake name following the Sunday accident.
Investigators say he’s in U.S. illegally and was deported in 2007 and 2009. He remained in the Marion County Jail on Monday.
Police say the 26-year-old Jackson and 54-year-old Jeffrey Monroe were standing outside their car along Interstate 70 in Indianapolis when they were hit and killed by a pickup truck being driven by Orrego-Savala.
Police say they believe Orrego-Savala was intoxicated and driving without a license. Police say they’re working with prosecutors on potential criminal charges.