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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 bring the lumber

Posted Mar 22, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Mar 22, 2010 at 07:13 PM

ROGER MOONEY

FORT MYERS The Rays hit a team record seven home runs today during their 11-9 win against the Red Sox at City of Palms Park.

Kelly Shoppach and Evan Longoria hit two each.

Ben Zobrist, Hank Blalock and Sean Rodriguez hit one each.

Those were Longoria’s first two home runs of the spring and they came in consecutive at-bats on consecutive swings. His second homer was a blast that hit the scoreboard on left-center field.

“It really wouldn’t matter if I hit 10 or none in the spring,” he said. “I’m going to go into the season with the same mindset, but it’s always good to get that first one out of the way. It gives you a little more confidence in the box.”

S-Rod now has a team-high six.

“I thought from top to bottom the lineup showed a lot today,” Longoria said. “Other than the (seven) homers, there were a lot of good at-bats mixed in there, and we had a couple of long innings where we hit around. I think we proved we can do a lot today, not only hit homers, but run the bases and do a lot of other things, too. It’s good to know that we give (manager) Joe (Maddon) a lot of options.”