Fingers crossed at Dolphin Stadium

Posted Jun 25, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Jun 25, 2008 at 04:47 PM

MIAMI—By my unofficial count, the tarp has been on and off the field twice in the last couple of hours. It’s off now after the last set of showers passed through around 5:00. The grounds crew then set the field up for the Rays to take batting practice, but the Rays already had planned to just hit inside in the batting cages, so the grounds crew is now taking everything down.

Still sort of wait-and-see on the weather for tonight. No one wants to play a doubleheader in the middle of the afternoon tomorrow, I can assure you of that.

Enough of that; here’s the big news of the day: Jason Bartlett’s wife, Kelly, gave birth to their first child at 4:03 p.m. today. Jayden Anthony Bartlett weighed in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces and is “healthy and lovin’ life,” according to a text message Bartlett sent to director of team travel Jeff Ziegler. Congratulations to the Bartletts! The new dad still plans to join the team in Pittsburgh on Friday.

On the Rays front, it sounds like Carlos Pena could make a cameo for Vero Beach at Sarasota tomorrow. It would be a one-game trial run to let him see some live pitching before potentially coming off the DL to open the Pittsburgh series.

Troy Percival said today it’s going to be a day-to-day thing with his leg and how it will hold up, and it seems the Rays are committed to just gauging his availability on the fly.

Also, Aki Iwamura had his appeal hearing via teleconference this afternoon. It lasted about an hour and Aki said he felt like he stated his case. The Rays aren’t sure when the decision will be handed down, but Friday seems to be the best guess.

Here are the lineups for tonight:

Rays
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Upton CF
Hinske 1B
Longoria 3B
Navarro C
Gross RF
Zobrist SS
Shields P

Marlins
Ramirez SS
Hermida RF
Cantu 3B
Willingham LF
Uggla 2B
Jacobs 1B
Ross CF
Treanor C
Tucker P