Red-Hot Tampa Bay Rays Going With Ryan Stanek As Opener Friday Vs. Minnesota Twins

The hottest team in baseball is the Tampa Bay Rays, that overachieving bunch with the lowest payroll in baseball by a wide margin and also with the worst fan support in the majors – by a wide margin. Then again, it's not really on the fans but the fact that Tropicana Field is probably the worst professional stadium in all of American pro sports. But we digress.

Rays manager Kevin Cash started a trend last year that frankly has confounded oddsmakers: Starting an "opener." Said pitcher goes an inning or two but isn't allowed more than one turn through the rotation. Then Cash goes to a pseudo-starter for the middle innings or just does a committee the entire game. MLB odds are based on starting pitchers so that causes a problem.

Tampa Bay brings an MLB-best six-game winning streak into Friday's home series opener against the Minnesota Twins, with a first pitch of 7:10 p.m. ET. Could be playoff preview. Cash will use an opener, and it has been announced it will be Ryan Stanek (0-1, 2.97). As a pure reliever, the right-hander has an ugly 8.53 in eight appearances this year. But in 15 "starts," he has a 1.50 ERA. Stanek last pitched Tuesday as an opener against the Blue Jays and didn't allow a run over two innings. He hasn't allowed a run in his past four appearances.

The Twins counter with ace Jose Berrios (7-2, 3.20), who might be on track for a second straight All-Star appearance. The right-hander had struggled in back-to-back starts before allowing one earned last time out against the White Sox over 6.2 innings. Berrios is on extra rest here and has done well in the past on it with a 9-5 record and 3.20 ERA with at least five days between starts. However, he's 0-2 with an 8.44 ERA in three career starts vs. the Rays, who are thus slight favorites on the MLB odds.