Red Sox begin series at the Trop: Masataka Yoshida batting clean-up; Nick Pivetta makes 12th career start vs. Rays; Casas .143 average in last 17 games

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The Red Sox will begin a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night.

Boston enters the final two weeks of the regular season, and they're hanging onto extremely slim playoff hopes. After dropping three of four to the Yankees this past weekend, the Sox are 4 games out of the final American League wild-card spot trailing the Twins. The Mariners and Tigers are ahead of the Red Sox in the chase for the postseason.

Nick Pivetta will be on the mound for Boston; he is making his 12th career start versus the Rays. Pivetta is 1-6 with a 4.42 ERA and has 60 strikeouts against Tampa Bay. The Sox righty has tossed five plus innings or more in nine of his last 11 outings.

The Canadian hurler owns a 3.34 ERA with 37 strikeouts over 29 2/3 innings (five starts) against American League East teams.

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Masataka Yoshida will bat out of the clean-up spot for the fifth time this year. He enters Tuesday night’s game riding a three-game hitting streak. Yoshida is 5-for-12 with a double, a homer, two runs scored, and five RBI over that span.

Triston Casas is batting seventh and playing first base. The 24-year-old is batting .143 (7-for-49) in his last 17 games since Aug. 28. He enters the series opener two runs shy of 100 for his career and three RBI shy of 100.

Rafael Devers continues to hit out of the No. 2 spot in the lineup and is 10-for-34 (.294) in his last 10 games since Sept. 6. This comes on the heels of the slugger going 4-for-41 (.098) over his previous 11 games.

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Key stats and Red Sox lineup

Rays vs. Pivetta: Jonathan Aranda 0-2, José Caballero 0-4, Dylan Carlson 0-2, Jonny DeLuca 1-2, Yandy Díaz 5-21, Brandon Lowe 4-13, Josh Lowe 1-5, Jose Siri 1-4, Taylor Walls 1-8

Red Sox vs. Baz: Has not faced any Boston batters in his career.

Rays’ Shane Baz is making his 12th start of the year, which would be a career high. The righty is 0-1 with a 2.38 ERA over his last two starts; he recorded nine strikeouts over 11 1/3 innings.

Red Sox (75-75) lineup at Rays (73-77):

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1. Jarren Duran CF

2. Rafael Devers 3B

3. Tyler O’Neill LF

4. Masataka Yoshida DH

5. Connor Wong C

6. Wilyer Abreu RF

7. Triston Casas 1B

8. Trevor Story SS

9. Ceddanne Rafaela 2B

SP: RHP Nick Pivetta (5-10, 4.24 ERA)

The first pitch is at 6:50 p.m. and can be seen on NESN, Fubo, and Sling TV, and it can be heard on WEEI 93.7 FM.