(Best E Casino) - A pair of teams off to surprisingly good starts this season get together tonight at McAfee Coliseum, where the slumping Oakland Athletics host the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener of a three-game series.

Tampa Bay's play in the early going has been particularly eye-opening, considering the Rays have never posted more than 70 wins in a season during their 10-year existence. The up-and-coming club is a solid 25-19 so far, though, and trails the powerful Boston Red Sox by only a game for the top spot in the American League East at the moment.

The Rays had ripped off eight victories in a nine-game span prior to dropping the final two tests of an interleague set with the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend. In Sunday's rubber match at Busch Stadium, Skip Schumaker came through with an RBI double with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Cards a 5-4 decision.

Tampa held a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning, but St. Louis pulled even on Aaron Miles' two-run single off reliever Trever Miller. Jason LaRue drew a leadoff walk against the Rays' Gary Glover (0-2) in the ninth, moved to third on a single by Cesar Izturis, and scored the winning run on Schumaker's hit.

The loss spoiled a solid start from the Rays' Edwin Jackson, who limited the Cardinals to one run and struck out seven over the first 5 1/3 innings.

Carl Crawford had a solo home for Tampa Bay, while B.J. Upton finished 2-for-4 with an RBI in a losing cause.

Oakland returns home after losing two of three matchups in Atlanta, including Sunday's 5-2 setback. Yunel Escobar went 3-for-4 with two RBI as the Braves dealt the reeling Athletics their seventh defeat in nine games.

Bobby Crosby hit a solo home run for Oakland, which compiled 11 hits but stranded 11 baserunners on the afternoon. Mike Sweeney, Jack Cust, Rob Bowen and Gregorio Petit each collected a pair of hits in defeat.

Justin Duchscherer (3-3) absorbed the loss after giving up three runs on seven hits in five innings of work.

In order for the A's to break out of their recent skid, they'll have to solve Tampa hurler James Shields, who's been going well for the Rays as of late. The right-hander held the Yankees to two runs over 7 1/3 innings in a hard-luck loss on Wednesday, five days after he spun an impressive one-hit shutout to defeat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Shields has had his share of struggles on the road this year, however. In four starts away from home, the durable hurler is 1-2 with a 6.10 earned run average. But in his lone career start at McAfee Coliseum, he yielded just one run and four hits while racking up nine strikeouts to beat Oakland on April 27 of the 2007 season.

In three career starts against the A's, Shields owns a 2-1 record with a 4.05 ERA.

Oakland counters with the reliable Joe Blanton, who comes in with only a 2-6 season record despite having allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of his 10 starts in 2008.

Blanton's string of tough luck continued Wednesday in Cleveland, where the right-hander permitted just two runs and four hits over seven innings but wound up on the short end of a 2-0 decision. Both runs Blanton allowed came on solo homers.

The University of Kentucky product is still in search of his first home victory of the year as well, with Blanton having compiled an 0-5 mark and a 3.66 ERA in his seven starts at the Coliseum.

He has faced Tampa Bay seven times previously and is 2-3 with a 6.06 ERA lifetime against the Rays.

Tampa Bay won six of its 10 encounters with the Athletics in 2007 and took two of three games from Oakland in its lone visit to McAfee Coliseum last year.