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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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Longoria out for Mariners series

Posted Sep 24, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Sep 24, 2010 at 06:52 PM

By TONY FABRIZIO

ST. PETERSBURG The Rays will be without All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria tonight and throughout their weekend series against the Mariners.

Longoria strained his left quadriceps Thursday night in New York and may not return until the middle of next week, manager Joe Maddon said. Sean Rodriguez starts at third tonight against left-handed pitcher Jason Vargas, and Dan Johnson could be in Saturday against righty pitcher Doug Fister.

“He won’t play this weekend, and we’ll reevaluate Monday,’ Maddon said of Longoria, who is hitting .294 with 22 home runs and 104 RBIs.

First baseman Carlos Pena is back in the lineup after getting a couple of days off to reflect on his ongoing struggles, and Desmond Jennings is getting a start in right field.

The Rays’ magic number for clinching a playoff berth (any combination of Tampa Bay wins and Boston losses) is four entering today’s play. The Rays trail the Yankees by a half-game in the AL East.

Here are the lineups:

MARINERS

Ichiro Suzuki, RF
Chone Figgins, 2B
Jose Lopez, DH
Franklin Guitterez, CF
Justin Smoak, 1B
Adam Moore, C
Michael Saunders, LF
Matt Tuiasosopo, 3B
Josh Wilson, SS
—
Jason Vargas, LHP (9-11, 3.75)

RAYS

B.J. Upton, CF
Jason Bartlett, SS
Carl Crawford, LF
Willy Aybar, DH
Ben Zobrist, 2B
Kelly Shoppach, C
Carlos Pena, 1B
Sean Rodriguez, 3B
Desmond Jennings, RF
—
Jeff Niemann, RHP (10-7, 4.48)

Strained quad, left quad, that play that he made on that flip to second base , he kind of felt it. So we got him out of the game. He’s going to definitely not play during this weekend series and we’ll re-evaluate on Monday.

He won’t play this weekend, we will reevaluate on Monday.

We’re going to have Danny Johnson has been doing a lot of third base. Haven’t decided 100 percent yet, but you may see Dan there tomorrow.