Currently: Neither the Chicago White Sox nor the Tampa Bay Rays were expected to be leading their respective divisions almost two months into the season.
With those expectations exceeded, two of the AL’s early surprises open a four-game series Thursday night in St. Petersburg.
Central Division-leading Chicago (29-23) visits Tropicana Field for the second time this season after rallying for a 6-5 win at Cleveland on Wednesday, taking two of three from the Indians. The White Sox won a pair in a three-game set at Tampa from April 18-20 and have taken six of their last seven road contests against the Rays.
Tampa Bay (32-21), though, has gone 24-10 since losing that series and holds a slim lead over Boston in the East. The Rays beat Texas 5-3 on Wednesday to win two of three from the Rangers.
The White Sox rallied twice from two runs down for their third victory in four contests.
“To battle back, that shows the character of our ballclub,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.
Jermaine Dye homered and Carlos Quentin had two of his three RBIs in a three-run seventh inning. Quentin is 6-for-16 with two homers and seven RBIs in his last four games.
Jim Thome was 0-for-3 on Wednesday and is hitting .204, but went 5-for-11 with two home runs and six RBIs against Tampa Bay last month.
Chicago’s John Danks (3-4, 3.00 ERA) looks for another strong outing against the Rays on Thursday. He allowed three hits and struck out eight during seven innings of a 6-0 win at Tampa Bay on April 20.
“I want to be the guy that the team knows is going to go out there and hold (the opposition) to three or less runs and give them a chance to win,” Danks told the White Sox’s official Web site. “And so far it’s been great.”
The left-hander, 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA lifetime against Tampa Bay, didn’t get any support while allowing two runs in five innings of a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.
Tampa Bay will counter with Edwin Jackson (3-3, 3.47), who allowed six runs over 4 1-3 innings in losing to Danks and the White Sox on April 20. Jackson is 0-1 with an 8.71 ERA in two career starts versus Chicago.
Jackson managed to grind out his first win since April 10 in his most recent outing Saturday, allowing three runs, four hits and five walks in five innings of an 11-4 victory over Baltimore. The right-hander had given up one run over 20 1-3 innings in his three prior starts, but didn’t factor in any of those decisions.
Akinori Iwamura, B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria each drove a run Wednesday for the Rays, who bounced back from a 12-6 loss Tuesday to improve to 5-1 on a season-high 10-game homestand. Tampa Bay’s 21-9 home mark is second-best in the AL.
Longoria is batting .389 (7-for-18) with two homers and eight RBIs in his last five games, while Iwamura went 6-for-13 in the Texas series. Upton, meanwhile, is 6-for-11 against Chicago this season.
Tampa Bay will be without closer Troy Percival after he was placed on the 15-day DL on Thursday with a strained left hamstring. An MRI exam revealed no significant damage.
“The good news is it’s nothing significant. That’s what we were worried about, first and foremost,” Rays vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.
Dan Wheeler or Al Reyes could fill in for the 38-year-old Percival, who’s converted 14 of 16 save chances this season.
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