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Game 52 Preview: Tampa Bay Rays vs Minnesota Twins

The Rays head to Minneapolis to face the team with the worst record in the majors

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The impossible has happened.

The Rays have somehow been swept by the Kansas City Royals of all teams, and now the Rays have lost four in a row, and ten of their last 12. The winning drought has dropped the Rays to a record of 22-29, in last place in the American League East, nine games behind the Red Sox.

Hoping to reverse their fortunes, the Rays travel to Minnesota to take on the team with the worst record in the majors. The Twins currently stand with a record of 15-37, ten games behind the fourth place team in the American League Central and 15 games back of the division leading Royals.

TODAY'S STARTING PITCHERS:

2016 W L ERA FIP K% BB% AVG BABIP HR GS IP fWAR
Matt Moore 2 3 5.31 4.52 22.1% 7.5% .284 .337 10 10 57.2 0.4
Phil Hughes 1 7 5.74 5.11 13.0% 5.2% .294 .303 10 10 53.1 0.1

Moore provided a quality start his last time out, coming an out away from pitching a complete seven innings against the Yankees on the 28th. Moore allowed three runs on eight hits -- one homer -- while he did walk three, but also racked up seven strikeouts.

Phil Hughes Scouting Report:

Kyle Gibson was slated to be the Twins starting pitcher tonight, until around noon eastern, the Twins decided they'd hold off on activating him and instead will use Phil Hughes. So far this year, Hughes has struggled to remain consistent, as he has notched a couple of decent performance, but has also recorded some dreadful ones.  HIs last time out was on 28th against the Mariners where he was pulled after recording two outs in the fifth inning, as he had allowed four runs nine hits -- one home run -- and also walked and struck out three.

His Arsenal:

PITCH AVG. VELO. FREQUENCY vs LHB vs RHB
Fastball 91.3 MPH

45.6% vs LHB

***

47.3% vs RHB

Low and inside Anywhere waist high
Sinker 90.6 MPH

4.3% vs LHB

***

0.8% vs RHB

Low and away Low and in
Cutter 88.8 MPH

18.0% vs LHB

***

27.8% vs RHB

Paints the outside corner Anywhere down in the zone
Change-up 85.0 MPH

6.6% vs LHB

***

1.0% vs RHB

Low and away from the zone Sporadic
Slider 81.3 MPH

1.6% vs LHB

***

2.1% vs RHB

Sporadic Low and away from the zone
Curveball 77.7 MPH

23.6% vs LHB

***

20.5% vs RHB

Anywhere below the zone Low and away from the zone

His Splits:

2016 TBF wOBA AVG OBP SLG HR K% BB%
vs LHB 80 .408 .361 .430 .514 2 13.8% 10.0%
vs RHB 150 .328 .260 .280 .497 8 12.7% 2.7%
HOME 117 .377 .304 .333 .559 7 16.2% 4.3%
AWAY 113 .333 .283 .330 .442 3 9.7% 6.2%

TODAY'S STARTING LINEUPS

TAMPA BAY RAYS MINNESOTA TWINS
Brandon Guyer - RF Eduardo Nunez - SS
Brad Miller - SS Joe Mauer - 1B
Evan Longoria - 3B Brian Dozier - 2B
Logan Morrison - 1B Trevor Plouffe - 3B
Steven Souza - DH Robbie Grossman - LF
Corey Dickerson - LF Byung-ho Park
Mikie Mahtook - CF Max Kepler - RF
Taylor Motter - 2B Kurt Suzuki - C
Curt Casali - C Byron Buxton - CF