Gee hopes to bounce back while facing Rays for first time ever
The Tampa Bay Rays' dismal stretch already features two Drew Smyly losses, and the Kansas City Royals' only loss of the last week belongs to Dillon Gee.
Smyly hopes to avoid the longest losing streak of his career by helping the visiting Rays even this series on Tuesday night against Gee and the Royals, who are seeking their longest winning streak since closing 2015 with five straight victories.
Kansas City (28-22) has taken over first place in the AL Central with its four-game run, capped by Monday's 6-2 win over Tampa Bay (22-27) - the Rays' eighth loss in 10 games.
Watch the Royals Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every Kansas City Royals game on FOX Sports Kansas City.
Eric Hosmer hit a three-run home run after Lorenzo Cain drove in the go-ahead run during a four-run eighth inning to help the Royals to their eighth win in the last nine games of this series. They are 21-6 against the Rays since June 25, 2012.
Smyly (2-6, 3.92 ERA) hopes he can end that success by building a bit of momentum for himself.
The left-hander had pitched well his previous two starts - allowing four runs in 11 1/3 innings - before getting pounded in Thursday's 9-1 loss to Miami. He gave up five runs and six hits - two home runs - in six innings to suffer his third loss in his last four outings.
"It was just frustrating because I felt like I had pretty good command," said Smyly. "Just a couple of bad pitches, a couple curveballs just stayed up. It was just a frustrating outing for me because I thought I could perform better than I did."
The five-year veteran held a 2.61 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in three starts against Kansas City in 2014, though those were all with Detroit. Smyly is 3-1 with a 2.20 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in five career starts against the Royals, the other two coming in 2012.
Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Omar Infante have each homered off Smyly, though they have just a .206 batting average in a combined 34 at-bats.
Kansas City's only loss in its last seven games came from Gee (1-2, 3.86). The right-hander jumped into Kansas City's rotation earlier this month and looked good in his first two starts, but his Wednesday outing was a disaster.
He was shelled for 10 hits and six runs in four innings of a 7-5 loss at Minnesota, giving up four extra-base hits including three homers.
"It just seemed like when I made a mistake (Wednesday) they really did some damage," Gee said.
Gee spent the first six years of his career with the New York Mets and has never faced Tampa Bay.
