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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Posted Aug 31, 2008 by Marc Lancaster
Updated Aug 31, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Dioner Navarro did quite a bit of running yesterday and apparently felt it in his hamstrings, so he gets another day off today—and it sounds likely he won’t start until Wednesday. Shawn Riggans has become Matt Garza’s personal catcher, more or less, and with Garza on the hill Tuesday against Mike Mussina, Joe Maddon said Riggans probably would get the start in that one as well.
That’s the only lineup news of note. As for potential September call-ups, it sounds like we won’t get official word on that tomorrow night. Maddon said they’ll come in two waves—a small group in time for Tuesday’s game and some others later. He didn’t specify, but I imagine that’ll be after Durham’s playoff run comes to an end, unless a need arises before then.
The one player guaranteed to be in the first group is Troy Percival, who will come off the DL on Tuesday. I imagine Mike DiFelice likely will be included as well. Maddon wants a third catcher here, especially with Navarro still hurting a bit, and DiFelice would appear to be a better fit for the situation the Rays are in, even though he isn’t on the 40-man roster and John Jaso is.
The Rays do have an open 40-man spot after releasing Kurt Birkins, and it remains to be seen if they’ll clear out another spot or two to give someone like Dan Johnson a crack at coming up here. Position players already on the 40-man who are possibilities to get the call are Jonny Gomes, Elliot Johnson, Fernando Perez and Joel Guzman.
Here’s the lineup for today as the Rays go for a sweep of the O’s:
Iwamura 2B
Upton CF
Pena 1B
Baldelli DH
Aybar 3B
Zobrist LF
Bartlett SS
Riggans C
Ruggiano RF
Shields P
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