Tampa Bay Rays catcher Christian Bethancourt is not in the lineup for Thursday's series opener against right-hander Kyle Gibson and the Baltimore Orioles.
Francisco Mejia will catch for Tyler Glasnow and bat ninth while Bethancourt moves to the bench.
Per numberFire's MLB Heat Map, the Rays' implied total is 4.48 and the game total is 8.0. Gibson has a 4.77 ERA and 4.72 xERA this season, with a 44.1% hard-hit rate, 18.4% strikeout rate, and 7.8% walk rate. Those are pretty underwhelming, but he's only allowing 0.87 home runs per nine innings and the Rays' bats have been cold.
Source: MLB.com