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The Tampa Bay Rays entered last night's game against the Houston Astros with a 2-8 record in extra inning baseball. After surrendering their lead in the bottom of the eight inning, and failing to score in the top of the ninth, the Rays' poor performance during bonus baseball continued.
The Astros' bullpen made quick work of the Rays offense in the top of the tenth inning. With Brad Boxberger on the mound in the bottom of the tenth inning, Marwin Gonzalez led off the inning and launched a walkoff home run into the right field bleachers.
The Rays have now been the victim of nine walkoff loses in 2015; six of which have come at the hand of the their All Star closer Boxberger. According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Boxberger's six walk off loses are the most in Rays' history and the most in the major leagues since Brad Lidge had six in 2009 as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.
In tonight's game, the Rays hope to get on the board early against a very good Dallas Keuchel.
Nate Karns takes the mound for the 8:10 start time.
--Desmond Jennings is 6 for 15 since returning from the disabled list on August 14.
--Enny Romero was optioned after last night's loss. Matthew Andriese was called up to replace him.
Today's Starting Pitchers
| PITCHERS | W | L | ERA | FIP | K% | BB% | AVG | HR | GS | IP |
| Nate Karns | 7 | 5 | 3.53 | 4.03 | 22.9% | 9.0% | .228 | 16 | 23 (23 G) | 130 |
| Dallas Keuchel | 14 | 6 | 2.36 | 2.75 | 22.5% | 6.0% | .212 | 9 | 24 (24 G) | 171.2 |
--Keuchel is facing the Rays for the second time this season. In his first start on July 11 at the Trop, Keuchel tossed seven innings and allowed three earned runs en route to the loss.
--The Rays' roster is a combined 19 for 70 (.271) against Keuchel in their careers.
--Keuchel has faired far better against left-handed hitters then right-handed hitters, and the Rays, for this reason, are only starting one lefty bat (Loney). Here's a look at Keuchel's splits this season:
| TBF | AVG | OBP | SLG | K% | BB% | HR | |
| vs RHH | 536 | .232 | .284 | .317 | 21.1% | 6.5% | 8 |
| vs LHH | 136 | .137 | .170 | .202 | 27.9% | 3.7% | 1 |
--Here's a look at Keuchel's arsenal in 2015:
| Pitch | Velocity | Frequency | vs RHH | vs LHH |
| Foursem | 90 mph |
7.96 vs RHH *** 5.49% vs LHH |
Sporadic. | Sporadic. |
| Sinker | 91 mph |
50.22% vs RHH *** 58.54% vs LHH |
Outer third of the strike zone, often out of the zone. | Sporadic, though usually in the middle of the zone and lower. |
| Change | 79 mph |
16.94% vs RHH *** 1.83% vs LHH |
Low and away, often out of the strike zone. | Rarely thrown. |
| Slider | 80 mph |
15.03% vs RHH *** 31.71% vs LHH |
Low and inside, often out of the strike zone. | Low and away, often out of the strike zone. |
| Cutter | 87 mph |
9.86% vs RHH *** 2.44% vs LHH |
Inside, usually out of the strike zone. | Rarely thrown. |
Other Rays' Notes
--The professional sport teams in Tampa Bay have some pretty ugly uniforms according to an ESPN uniform power rankings released today. Of the 20 cities with three or more professional sport teams, ESPN ranked the Tampa Bay teams (Rays, Lightening, Bucs) as the owners of the second worst uniforms.
--Jake Mcgee to be examined by Dr. Eaton:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rays?src=hash">#Rays</a> McGee "tweaked" left knee last night, flew home to see doc</p>— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) <a href="https://twitter.com/TBTimes_Rays/status/634102101921009664">August 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
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