AL Wild Card Preview: Tampa Bay Rays Vs Cleveland Indians

Oct 2, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona during batting practice before the American League wild card playoff game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

The Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians have done a ton of winning down the stretch to get to this game. Now they must win one more time, in the AL Wild Card game, in order to take on the Boston Red Sox on Friday afternoon in the Division Series.

Tampa Bay comes in after winning the tiebreaker game against the Texas Rangers thanks to Evan Longoria‘s bat and David Price‘s arm and fielding. Alex Cobb gets the ball to start for Tampa and went 11-3 this year with a 2.76 ERA. He went 3-0 with a 2.57 ERA during September. He is 2-1 with a 2.70 ERA in three career starts against the Indians. Nick Swisher is 2-7 lifetime off Cobb. Ryan Raburn and Asdrubal Cabrera also have two hits in their careers vs Cobb.

Cleveland goes with rookie pitcher Danny Salazar against Tampa Bay. Cleveland won 15 of their last 17 games, including their last 10, and 21 overall in the month of September, which is the most in a month for the tribe since 1995. Salazar went 2-3 with a 3.12 ERA in his rookie season. He went 1-1 with a 2.52 ERA during September. He has never faced the Tampa Bay Rays.

Here are your lineups for tonight’s game.

Tampa Bay:

David DeJesus LF

Wil Myers RF

James Loney 1B

Evan Longoria 3B

Ben Zobrist 2B

Desmond Jennings CF

Delmon Young DH

Yunel Escobar SS

Jose Molina C

Cleveland: