Aaron Civale will make his first start against the Cleveland Guardians since being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays are set to kick off a three-game weekend series down at Tropicana Field. These two teams have a lot of connections including the friendship between manager Terry Francona and Kevin Cash.
However, a new layer to this rivalry has been revealed with the trade deadline deal that sent Aaron Civale to Tampa just a couple of weeks ago.
Civale was Cleveland's best and most consistent veteran pitcher this season on a roster full of injuries and rookies. He held an ERA of 2.34 over 13 starts with the Guardians and was coming off arguably his best month in the Majors right before the trade deadline.
The Guardians decided to sell high on Civale's value and dealt him to the Rays in exchange for top first base prospect Kyle Manzardo.
This move was one that the clubhouse reportedly wasn't a fan of and President of Baseball Operations Chris Antonetti even flew down to Houston to meet and talk with the team to explain all the transactions at the deadline.
Now the Guardians are going to see a familiar face in the series opener with the Rays. Yep, Civale is in line to start for Tampa during the first game of the series which will be a major storyline for both sides.
Civale has made just one starts with the Rays so far, and it didn't go great. He pitched 4.1 innings against the Detroit Tigers and gave up three runs on nine hits. This is definitely not the debut that Aaron was envisioning with his new club.
The Guardians want to prove they're still a playoff team without Civale while Tampa's new pitcher looks to solidify himself as a start on a team bound for the postseason. This should set up a fun series opener on Friday night!
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