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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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Pena leads Rays team meeting before Padres game

Posted Jun 23, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Jun 23, 2010 at 09:05 PM

By TONY FABRIZIO

ST. PETERSBURG - The Rays have lost eight of 11 entering tonight’s game againt the Padres, and not surprisingly, there was a closed-clubhouse team meeting before batting practice.

It was called by first baseman Carlos Pena, who, despite his own struggles at the plate, is still recognized as one of the team’s leader.

“The way we work is, if anyone in the family has something to say, they are very welcome to say it,” Pena said. “So I take advantage of that once in a while. I just wanted to remind the guys we’re an awesome team, and that whoever said it was going to be smooth at all the time (was wrong). There are going to be some rocky parts of the road. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t zig-zag all the way to your destination.”

Right fielder Ben Zobrist said Pena is the only player who spoke and that he “told us to not put the identity of our team into what’s happened the last 10 or 15 games or whatever.”

Pena is batting only .198, bu the leads the Rays with 15 home runs, and he’s second in RBIs with 46. He entered tonight’s game with 18 RBIs in his last 21 games.

In another pre-game development, manager Joe Maddon said there’s “a pretty good chance” platoon outfielder Gabe Kapler will be back with the Rays next week. Maddon said Kapler, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list June 12 with a right hip flexor strain, said Kapler could start a minor league rehab assignment Friday at Class A Port Charlotte.

Here is Tampa Bay’s lineup tonight:

John Jaso, C
Carl Crawford, LF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Carlos Pena, 1B
Ben Zobrist, RF
B.J. Upton, CF
Hank Blalock, DH
Sean Rodriguez, 2B
Jason Bartlett, SS
-
James Shields, RHP