The Tampa Bay Rays will need to come out of their recent funk if they look to win their first game in three tries of the 4-game series against the Cleveland Indians. Losers of three straight, and seven of their past nine, the Rays bats have had trouble coming alive against the average pitching staff of the Indians.

The Rays will be sending Alex Colome in hopes of slowing down the Indians and keeping the runs low enough for his team to muster some type of support. Colome's last outing against the Indians came in Cleveland while allowing a single hit in 7 strong innings without factoring into the decision. His last seven starts have all resulted in losses for the Rays with his pitching being responsible for only two of them.

Colome will be opposite of Carlos Carrasco, a winner in five of his past seven starts while allowing over 3 earned ones just once. He'll be hoping the Rays don't find their footing against him. They hold a collective batting average of 0.280 against him.

However, the Rays line-up has mustered a mere 0.132 batting average two games into the series. Carrasco has been quite hittable this season even while on the cusp of reaching his tenth win of the season heading into his game with Tampa. Evan Longoria and David Dejesus are a combined 4 of 24 against him with 2 singles, a double, a home run from Longoria, and 6 strikeouts.

All of DeJesus' outs, excluding his lone strikeout, have been ground balls to the right side of the field, while his two hits have occurred on the left side of the field. Expect shifts towards the right side when he steps up to hit.

Jason Kipnis has been cruising against the Rays going 4 of 9 with two singles, a double, and a home run to go along with 2 RBIs. He is 0 of 2 against Colome with an intentional walk.

Look for a low scoring game, but don't be surprised if the Rays break out of their hitting slump against Carrasco who loves to pitch over the plate where most of his hits occur.