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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’ Hellickson goes for second win

Posted Aug 10, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Aug 10, 2010 at 07:48 PM

By TONY FABRIZIO

DETROIT The Rays put their depth to the test tonight with top pitching prospect Jeremy Hellickson starting the middle game of a three-game series with the Tigers.

Hellickson made his major league debut Aug. 2 and backed up his stellar numbers at Triple-A Durham, beating the playoff-contending Twins and Carl Pavano, 4-2. He’ll start tonight for rookie Wade Davis, who, along with Jeff Niemann, was placed on the 15-day DL on Monday.

The top pitching prospect in Baseball America’s top 25 midseason Top 25, Hellickson leads the International League with 12 wins, a 2.45 ERA and 123 strikeouts. In 30 starts for Durham over the last two seasons, he is 18-4 with a 2.47 ERA.

The Rays won the series opener 6-3 Monday, stopping a five-game losing streak, and they’ll go for their first series victory at Comerica Park since 2004 tonight.

Manager Joe Maddon said before the game he hopes to have a decision tomorrow on how the rotation will be set for the weekend series at home with the Orioles. James Shields will taks his turn Friday, but the Rays list the starters for Saturday and Sunday as undecided.

The obvious options are to have Andy Sonnanstine make a second consecutive start for Niemann - he pitched well in Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Toronto - or use the day off Thursday to skip Niemann’s turn and have David Price pitch on regular rest Saturday. Sonnanstine said he hasn’t been told whether he’ll start Saturday.

Also today, first baseman Carlos Pena (right plantar fascia sprain) ran around the infield and did some agility drills. Maddon said he should be available Monday when he’s eligible to come off the DL, or soon after.

Here are tonight’s lineups:

RAYS

John Jaso ,C
Ben Zobrist, 2B
Carl Crawflrd, LF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Matt Joyce, RF
Willy Aybar, DH
Dan Johnson, 1B
B.J. Upton, CF
Jason Bartlett, SS
—
Jeremy Hellickson, RHP 1-0, 2.57)

TIGERS

Austin Jackson, CF
Johnny Damon, DH
Brennan Boesch, RF
Miguel Cabrera, 1B
Carlos Guillen, 2B
Jhonny Peralta, SS
Brandon Inge, 3B
Ryan Raburn, LF
Alex Aville, C
—
Max Scherzer, RHP (7-8, 4.19)