My guy is Tarik Skubal. He is still underrated. Let’s just isolate him in the first 5…..we push on a tie.

Tarik Skubal has recorded at least seven strikeouts in just one of his four starts this season. However, two of them were near misses with six strikeouts each. This is a great matchup for him against the Rays, who have struck out the ninth-most times in baseball. They also have the seventh-worst OPS in baseball. Look for Skubal to pitch deep enough to hit this over.

Skubal has some of the nastiest stuff in MLB from the left side and he is off to the kind of strong start we expected. Rays have the second-worst K rate in the AL against lefties and just a .655 OPS against them (20th). The problem is particularly acute from the right side - they lean in that direction - where only Paredes is off to a hot start and Arozarena and Siri are striking out a ton. I project that to continue tonight. Skubal has yet to go 7 this season but that should be in play tonight. Skubal is in the 88th percentile in chase rate, and these free-swinging Rays righties are known to expand the zone, while the lefties will be overmatched.