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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-Braves pitching matchup favors the other guys

Posted Jun 17, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Jun 17, 2010 at 07:01 PM

ATLANTA - So how do you feel about tonight’s Rays-Braves pitching matchup?

Tampa Bay’s James Shields (5-5, 4.55) comes off one of the two worst starts of his career, a 14-9 loss to Florida last Friday in which he gave up 10 runs in 3 1/3 innings. He has lost his last four starts, matching his career high, and during those four losses, he has pitched to an 8.37 ERA.

Then again, Shields is 4-2 with a 3.43 ERA in six road starts.

Atlanta’s Tim Hudson (6-2, 2.43) is 3-1 with a 2.03 ERA at home (holding opposing hitters to a .202 average). A former Oakland A’s pitcher, he’s 6-1 with a 2.85 ERA agains tthe Rays in 10 career starts. (But he hasn’t faced them since 2004.)

Shields needs to come through tonight if the Rays are to avoid dropping a second consecutive interleague series. They lost two out of three to Florida at home last weekend, and they’ve split the first two games with Atlanta (a 10-4 win, 6-2 loss).

Manager Joe Maddon’s lineup has a new leadoff hitter in shortstop Reid Brignac. Brignac led off a couple of times in April, but he has batted eighth or ninth all of this month. Maddon said he likes how Brignac matches up against Hudson’s sinker.

No. 1 shortstop Jason Bartlett is out of the lineup after coming off the disabled list last night (strained right hamstring). He’s available to play, and Maddon said he’ll start the next two games at Florida. Sean Rodriguez is at second, and Dioner Navarro, who was bothered by a stiff neck for awhile, makes his first start behind the plate in more than a week. Navarro had a pinch-hit double last night.

We’ve had some light rain here, and the starting time has been pushed back from 7:10 to 7:30 p.m. The radar shows some isolated thunderstorms in the area.

Here are the lineups:

RAYS
Reid Brignac, SS
Carl Crawford, LF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Carlos Pena, 1B
Ben Zobrist, RF
B.J. Upton, CF
Sean Rodriguez, 2B
Dioner Navarro, C
James Shields, RHP

BRAVES
Martin Prado, 2B
Brooks Conrad, 3B
Jason Heyward, RF
Brian McCann, C
Troy Glaus, 1B
Eric Hinske, LF
Yunel Escobar, SS
Melky Cabrera, CF
Tim Hudson, RHP