Tampa Bay Rays (44-39) vs. Houston Astros (30-53) 7:10 PM (CT)

Tampa Bay at Houston, 7:10 pm (CT)

TV: CSN Houston
Radio: KBME 790 AM, KLAT 1010 AM
Rays SBNation Blog: DRaysBay

Pitching Match

LHP David Price (1-4 / 5.24 ERA / 1.44 WHIP) vs. LHP Erik Bedard ( 3-3 / 4.44 ERA / 1.44 WHIP)

Preview

Who would have thought that Erik Bedard would have a better stat line then David Price at this point of the season? No one, but I doubt anyone would expect David Price to be on the shelf for a month and half with a left triceps strain. The injury zapped Price's velocity. As a result, in the 2012 Cy-Young winner struggling through three starts where he gave up at least 4 runs in each, before going on the disabled list.

Price went 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA in two rehab starts at Class-A Charlotte, which included 12 strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings. Price hopes to improve upon his home run rate (2013: 1.31 HR/9 2012: 0.68 HR/9) and BABIP (2013: .345 2012: .285) from his first nine starts in 2013, both ballooned from Price's carrer averages. The Astros should be a good way to ease back into the majors, Houston has batting .162 as a team over the last 7 games.

On the mound today for the Astros is Erik Bedard, the man that continues mystify batters with continued success on the mound. Bedard is 3-1 with a 3.23 ERA over his past nine starts, more specifically he is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA in his past three starts. Bedard made two starts against the Rays in 2011, he was 0-2 and allowed 8 runs over 7 1/3 innings. Desmond Jennings had a homerun and two runs batted against the Astros' lefty. Ben Zobrist batted .571 in seven at-bats, while Evan Longoria was 0-for-3 against Bedard in those two starts.

UPDATE:

#Astros' Carlos Pena expected to be active tonight vs. #Rays. #MLB

— Brian T. Smith (@ChronAstros) July 2, 2013