Kazmir likely Game 1 starter

Posted Oct 20, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Oct 20, 2008 at 04:00 PM

The Rays still have not officially announced who will start Game 1 on Wednesday, but Scott Kazmir is the odds-on favorite to get the ball.

Maintaining the same rotation the Rays used in the first two rounds—James Shields followed by Kazmir, Matt Garza and Andy Sonnanstine—would require Shields to come back on short rest Wednesday. The Rays are not inclined to go that route, so they likely will go with Kazmir followed by Shields, Garza and Sonnanstine.

Final roster decisions also will wait. The Rays will kick around the possibility of dropping a pitcher and going back to 15 position players, as they did in the first round. If they did that, Eric Hinske likely would be the player added.

Another potential change would be the addition of Shawn Riggans in place of Michel Hernandez as the backup catcher. The Rays aren’t sure whether Riggans is healthy enough to go, but they’ll give him a good look tomorrow.

As for Troy Percival, it sounds like he’s available in case of an injury but wouldn’t bump any existing pitcher off the roster unless the need arose.

Again, all of this is speculative at the moment and we won’t know officially until the morning of Game 1 what the Rays have decided to do.