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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 @ Jays, without Crawford again

Posted Aug 7, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Aug 7, 2010 at 03:53 PM

James Shields will try to win his fourth in a row today against the Blue Jays.

By TONY FABRIZIO

TORONTO - Greetings again from Canada, where it’s the kind of day we don’t get in the Tampa Bay area until late October.

The Rays will try to break a three-game losing streak this afternoon against the Blue Jays after dropping the opener in the weekend series 2-1 Friday night. James Shields, coming off his best start of the year last Sunday in a 3-0 victory against the Yankees, will oppose 25-year-old lefty Brad Mills.

All-Star left fielder Carl Crawford is not in the lineup for a second consecutive day. Manager Joe Maddon said Crawford has been “a little sore” and that the artificial turf at the Rogers Center is particularly tough on him. Crawford played in 11 consecutive games on the turf at Tropicana Field before getting Friday off.

Although the Rays are facing a lefty in Mills, that apparently wasn’t a factor in Maddon’s decision to rest Crawford. Maddon said the advance scouting report on Mills indicated that he’s tougher on right-handed hitters, so he stacked Tampa Bay’s lineup with lefty hitters. Dan Johnson, Matt Joyce, John Jaso and Reid Brignac are in the lineup, as are switch-hitters Ben Zobrist and Willy Aybar.

Maddon did say Crawford is available to pinch-hit, and he conceded it was hard leaving a player who’s hitting .302 with 38 stolen bases on the bench with the Rays struggling to find offense.

“Absolutely, it is,” he said. “But again, you have to look at the long term, and it’s like the old road sign (says): Temporary inconvenience; permanent improvement.”

Relievers Dale Thayer and Andy Sonnanstine are both here, although only Thayer is on the roster. Maddon said Sonnanstine (strained left hamstring) will probably come off the disabled list tomorrow, meaning Thayer will likely head back to Triple-A Durham.

Here are today’s lineups:

RAYS

B.J. Upton, CF
Dan Johnson, 1B
Evan Longoria, 3B
Matt Joyce, LF
Willy Aybar, DH
Ben Zobrist, RF
John Jaso, C
Jason Bartlett, SS
Reid Brignac, 2B
—
James Shields (10-9, 4.54 ERA)

BLUE JAYS

Travis Snider, LF
Yunel Escobar, SS
Jose Bautista, RF
Vernon Wells, CF
Adam Lind, DH
Aaron Hill, 2B
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Edwin Encamacion, 3B
J.P. Arencibia, C
—
Brad Mills (1-0, 0.00 ERA)