The Tampa Bay Rays suffered a three-game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers over the weekend. Odds are they'll struggle at Houston as well, at least in the opener tonight as we have a classic pitching mismatch in my opinion.

Here are my keys to the game:

1. Pitching - The Rays hand the ball to Erasmo Ramirez (9-4, 3.59 ERA) who's overall numbers might look OK, but this is a bad spot for the 25 year old. His 4.83 road-ERA is more than two runs higher than his mark at home and he had posted a 5.12 ERA in his three outings before tossing seven scoreless home against Atlanta. He held the Astros to one run in six frames of a home win on July 10 but is likely to give up more this time, especially as the Astros have a team batting average of .274 against the right-hander. The Astros counter with Scott Kazmir (6-7, 2.12 ERA) who's been phenomenal all season long and opened his career in the Astros uniform with back-to-back shutouts. He's allowed three earned runs in 26 innings with the club and has conceded two or fewer earned runs in 10 of his last 11 outings.

2. Home Cookin' - The Astros are 40-19 home at Minute Maid Park for the year and have won 21 of their last 26 home games vs. a right-handed starter. The Rays have lost four straight on the road.

3. X-Factor - Jed Lowrie was 2-for-5 against Detroit his last game and he's 3-for-5 in previous meetings with Ramirez.

Selection: This is a play on the Houston Astros (8*)