This is a 10* American League GAME OF THE YEAR on the Tampa Bay Rays.

Recent performance is a major factor that we always take into account when looking at starting pitching and in this case we think the home side has the advantage today. The visitors are fresh off a deflating 11-1 loss last night in Boston and Tampa starter Nathan Karns (5-5, 3.47 ERA) will look to take full advantage; note that despite being just 2-2 over his last seven starts, Karns has posted a highly respectable 2.83 ERA in that span. Most recently Karns would go five scoreless in a 1-0 win over the Phillies on Tuesday, striking out four in the process. Excluding a seven-run anomaly two starts ago, Karns has been the very model of consistency, posting a 1.53 ERA over his last six trips to the mound. The Tigers counter with Anibal Sanchez (10-7, 4.59 ERA) who earned a win vs. the Mariners last time out despite giving up four runs off nine hits over 6 2/3's innings. If we dig a little deeper we discover that Sanchez has in fact been struggling with his command for a while now, giving up 20 runs in his last 40 1/3's innings pitched (and note, Sanchez has already struggled in this spot all year, just 3-3 with a pedestrian 4.17 ERA in all road games and the last time he faced Tampa Bay he was shelled for seven runs while walking four in a 7-2 home defeat back in July 2014, moving him to 2-2 with a ballooned 5.08 ERA in six career meetings vs. it). Both teams come in struggling at the plate, so we'll call that department a "wash." We have to give Karns the nod on the mound though and that's more than enough to tip the scales in our favor, in our professional opinion this is indeed the very definition of "great line value;" play on the RAYS.

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