Gameday Preview: Rays Look to Win Series With Blue Jays; How to Watch, Lineups and More

Jeffrey Springs has been one of the Tampa Bay Rays' best pitchers so far this season, and he makes his second start on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays. Here's our gameday preview for the afternoon game, with TV information, starting linueps and pitching bios. Check it out.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays finish off their. three-game series on Sunday at Tropicana Field, with both teams looking to take the series after splitting the first two games.

The Rays hitters will have their hands full with Toronto starter Alek Manoah, who's 4-0 on the season and beat them three times last year. Jeffrey Springs gets the call for the Rays, making his second start of the season. 

Toronto is favored on Sunday, only the second time all year the Rays have not been favored to win at home. (Betting line below.)

Tampa Bay will have to do it without red-hot outfielder Manuel Margot, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday. To read that complete story, CLICK HERE

Here's how to watch Saturday's game, with gametime and TV information, the starting lineups, bios and, of course, our great daily dose of newsy nuggets.

How to watch Blue Jays at Rays

• Who: Toronto Blue Jays (18-16) at Tampa Bay Rays (20-14)
• When: 1:40 p.m. ET, Sunday, May 15
• Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Fla.
• TV: Bally Sports Sun
• Stream: Fubo.tv CLICK HERE
• Announcers: Dewayne Staats (play-by-play) and Brian Anderson (color commentary).
• Radio: WDAE 95.3 FM; SiriusXM Channel 181
• Announcers: Andy Freed and Dave Wills.
• Latest line: Toronto is favored at minus-118 on the money line according to the SISportsbook.com website opening line as of Sunday afternoon. It's the second time the Rays have been underdogs at home all season, both in this series (Friday). The Rays are plus-105. The over/under is 7.5.

Blue Jays-Rays history

• Blue Jays vs Rays all-time series history: Tampa Bay holds a 231-192 edge in the series with their AL East rival dating back to 1998. The Rays are 131-87 in St. Petersburg, tops for win against any other opponent at Tropicana Field. Last year, Tampa Bay went 11-8 last year and won the season series for the sixth time in seven years. The Rays are 1-1 this season. They have met in the playoffs just once, when the Rays swept a first-round series 2-0 in 2020.

Blue Jays-Rays most recent game

• Blue Jays 5, Rays 1: The Toronto Blue Jays exploded for four runs in the eighth inning on Saturday night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 and getting to reliever Ryan Thompson in a big way. The Rays had just five hits, and never scored again after a leadoff home run by Yandy Diaz. CLICK HERE

Projected starting pitchers

• Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah: Alek Manoah, the 24-year-old right-hander from Homestead, Fla., has been sensational all year for Toronto. He's 4-0 with a 1.75 ERA, and has given up two runs or fewer in all six starts this season. He faced Tampa Bay four times last season and went 3-1
• Rays left-hander Jeffrey Springs: The Rays have stretched out Springs enough to get starter's innings now. He pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings in the win against Oakland on May 5, and started against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday, allowing three runs in four innings of work. He retired the first 10 batters he faces before giving up singles to Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani and a three-run home run to Jared Walsh. The Rays would love to get five efficient innings out of him today. Springs is 1-1 on the season with an impressive 2.12 ERA.

Projected lineups

• Blue Jays lineup: George Springer DH, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 1B, Teoscar Hernandez RF, Bo Bichette SS, Santiago Espinal 2B, Matt Chapman 3B,  Lourdes Gurriel Jr. LF, Alejandro Kirk C, Raimel Tapia CF, Alek Manoah P.
• Rays lineup: Brandon Lowe DH, Wander Franco SS, Harold Ramirez RF, Ji-Man Choi 1B, Randy Arozarena LF, Francisco Mejia C, Vidal Brujan 2B, Brett Phillips CF, Taylor Walls 3B, Jeffrey Springs P.

Related stories on Rays baseball

• JAYS RALLY LATE TO BEAT RAYS: The Toronto Blue Jays exploded for four runs in the eighth inning on Saturday night, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 and getting to reliever Ryan Thompson in a big way. The Rays had just five hits, and never scored again after a leadoff home run by Yandy Diaz. CLICK HERE
• JUST FOR STARTERS: Tampa Bay left-hander Ryan Yarbrough made his third start of the season on Saturday night against Toronto. He wasn't sharp but got out of trouble when he had to. Here's our ''Just For Starters'' story breaking down his night. CLICK HERE
• RAYS WIN OPENER (Friday): Drew Rasmussen was terrific for the fourth straight start and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied with three runs in the eighth inning to beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, grabbing their 20th win of the year. CLICK HERE
• RAYS SCHEDULE: Here is the complete 2022 Tampa Bay Rays schedule, with results so far plus dates, gametimes and locations for the rest of the games on their schedule. CLICK HERE