Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays

·Fri Sep 11·7:10 PM ET·St. Petersburg, FL

By JR·1 min read

Astros(75-72)

Rays(87-59)

1—3
FINAL

TLDR: Tampa Bay's push toward October runs through Tropicana Field, and Houston is showing up shorthanded.

FINAL · FRI SEP 11, 11:10 PM

Astros

(75-72)

WLWLL

Rays

(87-59)

LWWLW

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
HOU	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	9	0
TB	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	3	4	0

Tampa Bay's 87-59 club hosts a .500 Houston team at Tropicana Field, with Drew Rasmussen — fresh off one of his best starts of the year — opposing an unproven Miguel Ullola. The board favors Tampa Bay clearly, but a Rays bullpen thinned by four recent IL additions and a run of negative headlines complicate an otherwise lopsided picture.

Houston Astros

Took 2 of first 3 from Philadelphia
Won last game before this one, 2-1
Dropped both meetings with Arizona
Scored 2 runs or fewer in 3 of last 5
Correa, Matthews out for season plus 2 starters on IL

Tampa Bay Rays

Rasmussen: 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 K last time out
87-59 record, among the sport's best marks
Took 2 of first 3 from Atlanta
Four relievers added to IL in two weeks
Rotation also down McClanahan and Pepiot
Lost their last game before this one

Miguel Ullola (0-0, 3.86 ERA) gets the ball for Houston with essentially no track record to lean on, while Tampa Bay counters with Drew Rasmussen (14-5, 2.88 ERA), who is quietly having one of the better seasons on either roster. First pitch at Tropicana Field is 7:10 PM ET.

Miguel Ullola

(2-0)·2.30 ERA

2026 · No starts yet

—IP

—ER

—K

—BB

—P

09/11 Lineup

Drew Rasmussen

(16-5)·2.67 ERA

Sep 5 @ Rangers

7.0IP

1ER

0BB

97P

09/11 Lineup

Rasmussen's last time out went about as well as it gets — 7 innings, 1 earned run, 7 strikeouts, no walks — and Houston's lineup has been mostly held in check lately, scoring 2 runs or fewer in three of its last 5 games. The board treats Tampa Bay as the clear favorite here, but the number still leaves room for Houston to keep this closer than the records suggest.

That gap between the favorite and the number matters more than usual this week, because Tampa Bay isn't walking into this one at full strength.

Houston Astros

(75-72)

09/10W@

Phillies2-1

09/09L@

Phillies7-11

09/08W@

Phillies6-5

09/06Lvs

Diamondbacks2-3

09/05Lvs

Diamondbacks3-4

Tampa Bay Rays

(87-59)

09/10L@

Braves1-3

09/09W@

Braves7-2

09/08W@

Braves7-1

09/06L@

Rangers6-8

09/05W@

Rangers6-3

Houston split its last two with Arizona before taking 2 of the first 3 from Philadelphia, a stretch that included a 2-1 win its last time out. Tampa Bay, for its part, has taken 2 of the first 3 from Atlanta but dropped its most recent game before arriving in St. Petersburg for this one.

The injury sheets tell most of the story. Houston is missing shortstop Carlos Correa and center fielder Brice Matthews for the year, along with two starting pitchers, but it's Tampa Bay's bullpen that's taken the bigger recent hit — four relievers landing on the injured list in the last two weeks, on top of rotation pieces Shane McClanahan and Ryan Pepiot already out. Rasmussen going deep would help paper over that, the way he did his last time out.

Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays

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