Tampa Bay Rays vs Miami Marlins Picks and Predictions May 17th 2026

Streak-busting Marlins seek series victory over Rays

Jakob Marsee is squeezing out plenty of offense in the Citrus Series.

Fresh off back-to-back three-hit performances, Marsee will look to lead the Miami Marlins to a series victory against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of the three-game set in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Marsee collected his third hit on Saturday after recording a single with two outs in the ninth inning. He promptly scampered home on Javier Sanoja’s RBI double to take a 2-1 lead. The Marlins erupted for eight runs in the 10th en route to securing a 10-5 victory.

So, what does Marsee attribute to his recent success at the plate?

“Honestly, I used (teammate Liam Hicks’) bat. Another thing is talking to my dad back home, my hitting coach back home,” Marsee told the Marlins Radio Network. “Couple things cleaned up mechanically to give me more confidence. … It’s bound to happen.”

Marsee is happy it has, given he was mired in a 4-for-29 stretch with nine strikeouts over his previous nine games.

Then there’s Sanoja, who also had a bases-clearing double to highlight Miami’s monster 10th inning on Saturday. He went 2-for-5 with four RBIs after going 0-for-14 in his previous four games.

“He’s come through so many times,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said of Sanoja. “I know he was frustrated, but to get the big one in the ninth to give us the lead, and then to come back again and come up with another big one, that’s what he does. Happy for him. Happy for us. That’s what he’s shown is that the moment is never too big for him.”

While Miami improved to 2-3 on its six-game road trip, Tampa Bay saw its 11-game home winning streak come to a halt following just its fourth loss in 21 games.

Eury Perez (2-5, 4.94 ERA) will look to halt a four-start losing streak for the Marlins on Sunday when he takes the mound against the Rays’ Drew Rasmussen (3-1, 3.16) in a battle of right-handers.

Perez allowed three runs on as many hits in six innings of a 3-0 setback to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. The 23-year-old has yet to face Tampa Bay in his career.

Rasmussen also gave up three runs in six innings in his last start but walked away a winner in the Rays’ 8-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.

While happy with the win, Rasmussen sees room for improvement — namely, cutting down on the home-run ball. He has been taken deep seven times over 42 2/3 innings this season, including once in each of his last two starts.

“It seems right now the only runs that I’m giving up are via home runs, so I’ve got to figure out a way to limit damage in certain situations,” Rasmussen said, per the Tampa Bay Times. “But other than that, like we’ve talked about, every single outing it just seems to be a pitch or two. That’s pretty hard to complain about in the grand scheme of things. But, like, we’ve got to get back to keeping the ball in the yard a little bit.”

Rasmussen, 30, is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA in six career appearances (four starts) versus Miami.

–Field Level Media