Following a rough start to the week, the Tampa Bay Rays now have a chance to split a four-game home series with the Kansas City Royals.
Standing in their way Thursday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla., is veteran right-hander Seth Lugo, who has never lost to the Rays as a starter.
Tampa Bay, which never led while losing the first two games of this series, came through with a 5-3 victory over the Royals on Wednesday.
The Rays are 4-8 since last winning consecutive contests, when they swept a three-game home series against the Boston Red Sox from June 8-10.
“Positive mindset,” Rays star Yandy Diaz told Rays.TV. “We’ll be good and we’ll do our best.”
Diaz, who had four hits and an RBI on Wednesday, ranks third in the majors with a .332 batting average. He also is hitting .422 with 19 runs and 24 RBIs during a 22-game home on-base streak.
“Just doing my job, and that’s been the key to the season,” Diaz told Royals.TV. “I think I just get lucky here playing at home, and I get good results.”
Diaz is 2-for-7 with a double and home run vs. Lugo (3-4, 3.69 ERA), who is 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA as a starter against Tampa Bay.
Rays hitters are batting .183 against him and have walked only three times.
Just nine days after he took a line drive to the forehead against Texas, Lugo returned to the mound Friday. He yielded two runs (one earned) on five hits with three walks over six innings of the Royals’ 6-5 victory against St. Louis.
“I’ve dealt with injuries before, and the easiest way to get over that is to get back out there,” Lugo told The Kansas City Star.
He’ll do so on Thursday trying to help the Royals win for the sixth time in eight games. That’s a feat that would be even more impressive considering Maikel Garcia is on the 10-day injured list with a hand issue, and fellow All-Star Bobby Witt Jr. has not played since last Thursday, when he suffered an MCL sprain.
Teammate Carter Jensen, however, is batting .350 with 14 runs during a 15-game hitting streak.
Tampa Bay right-hander Casey Legumina (2-1, 3.45 ERA) will make his 25th appearance (second start) of the season on Thursday.
Legumina has allowed one run on two hits in each of his last two relief appearances and is 0-1 with an 18.00 ERA in three relief appearances in his career against Kansas City.
Legumina is expected to serve as the opener before giving way to left-hander Ian Seymour (3-1, 4.98 ERA).
Seymour has appeared in 48 big-league games since his debut in 2025, but this will be his first vs. the Royals.
With two hits Wednesday, Tampa Bay’s Jonathan Aranda is batting .340 with eight RBIs during his last 12 games. He’s 2-for-6 with a double vs. Lugo.
–Field Level Media
