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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 must pitch better against Marlins

Posted Jun 18, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Jun 18, 2010 at 12:06 PM

By TONY FABRIZIO

While taking two out of three from the Rays last weekend at Tropicana Field and scoring 25 runs along the way, the Marlins didn’t look like a pedestrian team.

And yet they’re 31-35 and a mere half-game out of last place in the National League East after being swept by the Rangers over the last three days.

The Rays really don’t know what they’re going to see over the next three days at Sun Life Stadium in south Florida.

“I haven’t had a chance to see them play regularly, but the comment I heard is that they kind of put it all together versus us last week,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

“Just think about the defense they played against us. The plays (third baseman Wes) Helms was making at third base. (First baseman Gabriel) Sanchez knocked a couple of things down. They made some good plays in the outfield. They elevated their defense game against us (in addition to hitting and pitching).”

The Rays (41-25) are reeling. They’ve lost three of their last four series, including two out of three games at Atlanta this week. While they’re still tied with the Yankees for first place in the American League East, they’re only two games ahead of the Red Sox.

After going 13-5 in interleague play last year and 12-6 the year before, the Rays are only 4-5 this year with the road series against the Marlins and home series against the Padres and Diamondbacks remaining.

Tampa Bay also has won the Citrus Series two of the last three years, but they’ll have to sweep this weekend’s set to win this year’s matchup.

“We just have to pitch well,” Maddon said. “You have to keep them in the ballpark. They normally score their runs via the home run. They’re not necessarily into manufacturing things. So you have to pitch well ,and then you’ve got to get the ma little bit.”

Besides giving up 25 runs – the Marlins won one game 14-9 and another 6-1 – the Rays allowed 35 hits last weekend.

Rays RHP Matt Garza (7-4), who won his matchup against Florida 6-5 last Saturday, starts tonight’s series opener against lefty Nate Robertson (4-5).

Garza is 3-0 against the Marlins and threw a one-hitter at Sun Life Stadium in 2008, allowing only a seventh-inning home run to Hanley Ramirez.

“He’s a good hitter; you just try tot contain that guy,” Garza said of Ramirez, who had a triple against him last weekend but is 2-for-10 against overall. “He can hit anything. It’s ridiculous.”

Robertson has not beaten the Rays in seven career starts.

On Saturday, Jeff Niemann (6-1) will try to rebound from his first loss of the season against Chris Volstad (4-6), who beat the Rays on Sunday. In Sunday’s marquee matchup, David Price (10-2) takes on Josh Johnson (7-2).

“They played their best ball against us (last weekend), and they could have won all three games,” Maddon said. “We won the (middle) one 6-5, and that was a very tough win.”