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 Sep 4, 2009 by Marc Lancaster
Updated Sep 4, 2009 at 04:14 PM
Fernando Perez will get his first start of the season tonight against the Tigers, replacing B.J. Upton in center field. The task for he and his mates is not an easy one, either. Still in need of as many wins as possible, the Rays will have to deal with Justin Verlander today, and that is rarely a pleasant experience. At least they have Jeff Niemann going on their side, so we could see a bit of a pitcher’s duel tonight. And me writing that likely guarantees an 11-9 final score.
The lineups:
Rays
Bartlett SS
Crawford LF
Zobrist 2B
Pena 1B
Burrell DH
Longoria 3B
Gross RF
Navarro C
Perez CF
Niemann P
Tigers
Granderson CF
Polanco 2B
Thomas RF
Cabrera 1B
Huff DH
Guillen LF
Inge 3B
Laird C
Everett SS
Verlander P
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