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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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Rays-Rangers: lineups, pre-game update

Posted Aug 16, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Aug 16, 2010 at 06:07 PM

By TONY FABRIZIO

ST. PETERSBURG  Greetings from the Trop, where the Rays have first baseman Carlos Pena back from the disabled list to start a three-game series with the AL West leading Rangers.

Pena was placed on the DL Aug. 6, retroactive to Aug. 1, with a right plantar fascia sprain, and he missed 14 games. To make room for him on the 25-man roster, the Rays placed platoon outfielder Gabe Kapler on the 15-day disabled list with a right ankle sprain.

Manager Joe Maddon said he optimistic Pena, who is hitting .212 with 23 home runs and 68 RBIs, won’t have any limitations because of the foot injury.

“I’m not hearing that it will,” he said. “So we’ll find out. ... I’m curious to see, like, first step on defense and maybe range in general. I’m not worried about his foot speed, running the bases necessarily, although, maybe later in the game, it might be an issue. If he tells me it is, we might need to get somebody out there.”

Starting pitchers Jeff Niemann and Wade Davis, who are the DL with right shoulder sprains, each through bullpen sessions. Davis walked by reporters without commenting after his, but Niemann said his went well and he isn’t having any discomfort in his shoulder.

Maddon said both are on target to rejoin the rotation during the Aug. 23-25 series at Anaheim, although he said it’s possible both won’t be brought back at the same time.

Maddon said he doesn’t see any reason why Johnson won’t stay up the rest of the way (rosters expand Sept. 1, which is around the time Kapler can return) and indicated he’ll get a lot of work at DH against right-handed pitchers.

By placing Kapler on the DL instead of sending 1B/DH Dan Johnson back to Triple-A Durham to make room for Pena, the Rays have traded a right-handed hitter for a lefty. All five of the right-handed hitters on the roster are in the lineup tonight against Rangers ace lefty Cliff Lee, as are switch-hitters Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar.

Maddon said he doesn’t think the Rays are too lefty-heavy because Zobrist and Aybar can hit from both sides of the plate.

“The teams that have, like, three lefties in the bullpen could really be a pain in the butt, under these circumstances,” Maddon said. “But we try to go back and forth with our lineup. Our switch-hitters really help in that regard, like Zobrist and Aybar being back-to-back. I’m OK with the lefties being on the bench right now, although I will say this: I like a switch-hitter on the bench.

“Willy (Aybar) might like this, but I like when Willy is on the bench. Because, first of all, he’s a good pinch-hitter, and second of all, you send them up there and let them (the opposing team) do whatever they want.”

The Rangers dropped two out of three to the Rangers at Arlington from June 4-6 in the only other series between the teams this year, but that was before Texas acquired 2008 Cy Young Award winner Lee and pulled out to a commanding lead in the AL West. This time, the teams have to look at each other as potential playoff combatants.

“The real difference with them for me, having been an AL West guy for many years, is they used to always pound the ball,” Maddon said. “But now they pitch. They pitch, they’ve got good starting pitching, their bullpen has been as effective as ours ... so I think the big difference with them between then and now is their pitching.

“And their defense. And then, they’re willing to run now, too. Their whole game has shifted. They were just about pounding the ball, you know, Texas baseball - hot air; get it up in the air and let it fly - and then eventually, they’ve morphed into a different kind of a team. A more complete team, and that’s where the difference is with them.”

Here are tonight’s lineups:

RANGERS

Elvis Andrus, SS
Michael Young, 3B
Josh Hamilton, CF
Vladimir Guerrero, DH
Jorge Cantu, 1B
Bengie Molina, C
David Murphy, LF
Brandon Boggs, RF
Andrew Blanco, 2B
—
Cliff Lee, LHP (10-5, 2.57)

RAYS

B.J. Upton, CF
Jason Bartlett, SS
Carl Crawford, LF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Carlos Pena, 1B
Sean Rodriguez, 2B
Ben Zobrist, RF
Willy Aybar, DH
Kelly Shoppach, C
—
David Price, LHP (15-5, 2.84