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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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First up for Rays on long Trop stand: Hurtin’ Tigers

Posted Jul 26, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Jul 26, 2010 at 08:00 AM

By TONY FABRIZIO

ST. PETERSBURG – If it wasn’t for TV, some fans might have forgotten what the Rays look like.

They Rays will play at Tropicana Field tonight for the first time in 15 days, opening a 11-game home against a Tigers team reeling from injuries.

The Tigers are still in the American League Central and wildcard race, but they lost right fielder Magglio Ordonez (fractured ankle ) and Carlos Guillen (strained calf) to the disabled list over the weekend.

Third baseman (fractured hand) also is out.

And the Tigers come to Tampa Bay having lost seven of 10 after having to play a doubleheader Sunday against Toronto.

The loss of Ordonez will make it easier for the Rays to pitch around Miguel Cabrera, an AL Most Valuable Player contender who’s among the league leaders in RBIs (88), average (.350) and home runs (24).

Matt Garza (10-5, 4.36) ERA gets the series opening assignment tonight.

“He’s vying for the Triple Crown, and I’m going to try and put up a road block; that’s all I can say,” Garza said of Cabrera. “Don’t try to get him out all the time, just contain him. With (Ordonez) going down, there’s less protection for him. So it’s like, he might be taking that base (a walk).”

Maddon said Cabrera’s strength is his willingness to use the whole field when there’s a chance to drive in a run.

“I liked him when he was with the Marlins,” Maddon said. “I thought he was the next coming of Edgar Martinez, with a little more power.

“The thing about Cabrera is, he’s willing to hit a ball over here (opposite field) to get an RBI. This guy doesn’t go up there to just try and yank everything he hits. He hits to whole field, and that makes it very difficult to pitch to him.”

Facing Garza is Max Scherzer (7-7, 4.43), who hasn’t won on the road since April 18, but is 2-1 with a 2.37 ERA in his last three starts.

The Rays toughest matchup in the series will come Tuesday, when James Shields (8-9, 4.90) will take on Justin Verlander (12-5, 3.96).

The Tigers still have some pop in their lineup. Center fielder Austin Jackson and right fielder Brennan Boesch are hitting .318 and .312, and veteran Johnny Damon is at .282.

“I know they’ve got a couple of good young players,” Maddon said of the Tigers. “Boesch has done a great job for them. Cabrera is having a great season. Their bullpen is very good. (Jose) Valverde, you don’t want to give him the lead.

“You really want to get on top and stay on top of them and not permit them to pitch to the guys they want to later in the game.”

The Rays comes off a 5-4 road trip that began with two losses in three games at New York but ended with series wins at Baltimore and Cleveland. With four wins in their last six games, the Rays are 14-6 in July.

The 11-game home stand is the Rays’ longest since a 12-gamer in August 2005, but it won’t be many easy nights. The Tigers (four games), Yankees (three) and Twins (four) are a combined 39 games over .500. Sellouts are possible during the weekend Yankees series.

Although the Rays are only 26-20 at home, they went 6-1 on a home stand just before the All-Star break, sweeping the Red Sox and taking two out of three from the Indians.

“We play well against good teams, too, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Maddon said. “The big concept is playing better at home in general. If we do that, we’ll put ourselves in a good position.”