Houston visits Tampa Bay, looks to build on Urquidy's solid outing

Houston Astros (15-12, second in the AL West) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (13-15, fifth in the AL East)

St. Petersburg, Florida; Sunday, 1:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Astros: Cristian Javier (3-0, .87 ERA, .82 WHIP, 26 strikeouts) Rays: Rich Hill (1-1, 7.25 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 24 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Houston heads into the matchup fresh off a strong showing by Jose Urquidy. Urquidy pitched seven innings, surrendering zero runs on four hits with five strikeouts against Tampa Bay.

The Rays are 6-10 on their home turf. Tampa Bay has a team on-base percentage of .302, led by Yandy Diaz with a mark of .375.

The Astros have gone 8-5 away from home. The Houston pitching staff owns a combined team ERA of 3.65, Jose Urquidy leads the staff with a mark of 3.71.

The Astros won the last meeting 3-1. Urquidy earned his second victory and Yuli Gurriel went 1-for-4 with two RBIs for Houston. Josh Fleming registered his third loss for Tampa Bay.

TOP PERFORMERS: Austin Meadows leads the Rays with four home runs and is batting .211.

Kyle Tucker leads the Astros with five home runs and has 15 RBIs.

LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 3-7, .206 batting average, 3.81 ERA, outscored by 10 runs

Astros: 8-2, .271 batting average, 2.08 ERA, outscored opponents by 34 runs

INJURIES: Rays: Chaz Roe: (shoulder), Colin Poche: (elbow), Collin McHugh: (lower back), Chris Mazza: (right shoulder), Pete Fairbanks: (shoulder), Oliver Drake: (forearm), Yonny Chirinos: (elbow), Jalen Beeks: (elbow), Chris Archer: (forearm), Nick Anderson: (elbow), Ji-Man Choi: (knee).

Astros: Justin Verlander: (elbow), Framber Valdez: (finger), Blake Taylor: (ankle), Austin Pruitt: (elbow), Enoli Paredes: (right side), Jake Odorizzi: (right pronator muscle), Josh James: (hip), Pedro Baez: (right shoulder).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.