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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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On to Baltimore

Posted Jul 19, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Jul 19, 2010 at 09:48 AM

ROGER MOONEYA lost weekend in the Bronx? Not if you are Carlos Peña or Jason Bartlett.
Bartlett had a hit in all the games, including two Friday night against CC Sabathia.

Peña was 0-for-3 Friday with three strikeouts, but got hot Saturday and Sunday, going 6-for-10 with two home runs, two doubles, three RBIs and three runs.

For a pair of hitters who have struggled this season – Peña had the second-lowest batting average in the major leagues before Saturday’s among those who qualify – their weekend at Yankee Stadium was seen as good signs by manager Joe Maddon.

“Those were some positives to take away,” Maddon said.

It’s no sin to go 1-2 against the best team in baseball in their building, though you can make the case the Rays had a chance to go 2-1 or even 3-0 with some better pitching and a better job by the offense, which stranded 12 runners in Sunday’s 9-5 loss.

But the Rays begin a three-game series tonight in Baltimore against the worst team in baseball then finish this nine-game road trip with three games in Cleveland over the weekend.

The six games against a pair of last place teams. Not a bad stretch for the team with the second-best record in baseball.

The Rays just have to take care of business.

“You can’t have any let downs,” Maddon said. “I worry about that more than anything else.”

Wade Davis starts tonight against the Orioles.

He snapped a five-game losing streak during his last start and is 2-0 with a complete game shutout and a 0.56 ERA in his two career starts at Camden Yards.

“Let’s move it along. Let’s keep playing well,” Maddon said after Sunday’s loss. “Let’s see what happens.”