Johnson not here yet; Zobrist starts

Posted Sep 9, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Sep 9, 2008 at 05:57 PM

BOSTON—Defense will take a back seat for the Rays in the outfield tonight, with a couple of guys who have spent most of their lives as corner infielders—Dan Johnson and Eric Hinske—on the corners and Gabe Gross in the middle.

You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do in these situations, and for now offense is obviously the most pressing issue for the Rays.

Updating: Looks like Johnson’s start tonight will depend on when he arrives in town. He and Michel Hernandez were originally supposed to land around 5 p.m., but last I heard it was back to around 6. If they’re not here by about 6:30, the Rays will go with Plan B. That would be Ben Zobrist batting second and playing center, Gross moving to right and Hinske going to left. 

The Durham Bulls, by the way, are officially not pleased with the Rays for “taking” three of their key position players on the day the Governors’ Cup finals are beginning.

Updating again after an Andrew Friedman conference call: Friedman said the Rays had planned on calling up Johnson at some point based on the “tremendous” year he has had in Durham, and they opted to go with Hernandez rather than bringing back the recently released Mike DiFelice because they felt that “was the right thing to do.”

Perhaps the primary reason Johnson got the immediate call over Jonny Gomes is the Rays are facing a string of right-handed starters. Friedman said if they were about to see some lefties, it’s “likely” would have been Gomes getting the call. Either way, Jonny G is also “likely” to come up when Durham is done.

Updating with a lineup change: The aforementioned lineup change has in fact happened because of travel delays for Johnson and Hernandez. The new lineup is below:

Iwamura 2B
Zobrist CF
Pena 1B
Floyd DH
Aybar 3B
Hinske LF
Navarro C
Gross RF
Bartlett SS
Kazmir P