Getting Set to Face Wade Miley

Wade Miley and the Boston Red Sox are coming to St. Petersburg to face the Tampa Bay Rays in a three game series, set to begin tonight at 7:10. Opposing Miley on the mound will be Chris Archer, who has been completely dominant in last two times out. Archer hasn't allowed a run since the the 6th inning on opening day.

Here's the lineups for tonight's game. Beckham gets that start at short, while Ryan Brett makes his first career start and will be playing 2nd. Asdrubal Cabrera gets the night off while Rene Rivera will be the DH with Bobby Wilson catching.

Rays-red Sox lineups for Tuesday night #rays pic.twitter.com/HTGCYLXgk5

— Bill Chastain (@wwchastain) April 21, 2015

Miley has spent the past few seasons being a workhorse in the Diamondbacks rotation, averaging 200 innings a year. The Red Sox acquired him during the offseason, and he had a decent season debut for them, but he shelled in his 2nd outing against the Washington Nationals. He wasn't able to make it past the 3rd inning and had already allowed seven runs by that point.

Wade Miley has a fastball that tops out around 94. He likes to keep it down and in to righties, while also just pitching exclusively outside to lefties. With his slider, he attacks the corners on lefties, while barreling it down and in on righties. With his sinker, Miley has it drop on the inner half against lefties, while it tails away from righties. Miley has thrown his change-up exclusively against righties this year, trying to drop it through the bottom of the zone. Miley also possesses a curve, but he's only thrown it a handful of times this year and has spotted it sporadically around the zone.

Miley has pretty much used all of his pitches equally with the exception of his curve which he rarely uses.

Here are Ian's projections:

Other Rays related notes:

- As of now, it's unconfirmed but there are reports that Drew Smyly will skip his 4th rehab appearance and start his first regular season game of the year, Friday night against Toronto.

- Juan Francisco, who almost certainly would be with the team now, has reached an agreement to play in Japan. He chose to become a free agent, rather than accept an assignment to Durham at the end of spring training. James Loney was injured a week later.

Juan Francisco signs with Japanese team http://t.co/NNGTtpI2Gg

— HardballTalk (@HardballTalk) April 21, 2015

- Alex Colome struggled with his command in his rehab start for the Bulls, but also struck out 6 in 3+ innings.

Alex Colome's rehab start is done. 3.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 77 pitches (47 strikes). #Rays

— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) April 21, 2015

- Mikie Mahtook partially broke the center field wall making a great catch today for the Bulls. He'd stay in, but the game would be delayed while the grounds crew repaired the wall.

A running catch by @DurhamBulls CF Mikie Mahtook was so great it actually broke the wall at DBAP. pic.twitter.com/hGKcWvQmGA

— Rob McLamb (@RobMcLamb) April 21, 2015

Go Rays!