Tampa Bay Rays (45-40) vs. Houston Astros (31-54) 1:10 PM (CT)

Tampa Bay at Houston, 1:10 pm (CT)

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

Pitching Match

RHP Chris Archer (2-3 / 4.40 ERA / 1.46 WHIP) vs. RHP Jordan Lyles ( 4-3 / 3.99 ERA / 1.37 WHIP)

Preview

Happy Fourth of July Astros fans. The Astros hope to continue their turn-around against the Rays. The man tasked with this job is Jordan Lyles. Lyles began the month of June with an ERA of 1.69 over four starts. In his final two starts in June, he gave up nine runs over nine innings. In his lastest start, Lyles completely lost his ability to locate his pitches and struggled all afternoon against the Angels. Desmond Jennings and James Loney have been Astro-killers this seires, Jennings is batting .417 with five RBI and Loney is batting .455 with two RBI.

Chris Archer was the pitcher chosen to stay in the rotation when David Price returned, over Alexander Colome. Archer has a fastball that can reach up to 98 mph, a devastating slider, and a serviceable change up. Archer got his first major league action last year with six starts in the majors. He collected a 4.60 ERA during that time. Since joining the club at the start of June, Archer has failed to pitch out of the fifth inning in three of his six starts.