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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Posted Oct 8, 2008 by Marc Lancaster
Updated Oct 8, 2008 at 04:22 PM
The Rays will stick with the same rotation they used in the first round, Joe Maddon said today.
James Shields will get the ball in Game 1, followed by Scott Kazmir. Matt Garza and “probably” Andy Sonnanstine.
Why?
“I like it,” said Maddon. “I just like it that way. It’s no different from the first round in a sense. Shieldsy in the first game, because he normally gets a little bit deeper in the game. Kaz in the second game, if he runs into a little bit of a pitch-count problem, you have the bullpen fresher [with a day off following], and then of course the next two guys. And listen, we know about Garza, but Andy has done consistently well the last month or so, so I don’t want to subtract Andy out of the mix, either. You could talk about a three-man rotation, but we really have not set up guys on less than normal rest. We’re not opposed to doing it if we need to, but for right now, theoretically perfect, we’re going to go that way.”
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Reader Comments
Por (aria) on October 08, 2008 (Suggest removal)
Good Luck RAYS!!! Hope you guys can go all the way!!
Suggest removalPor (william goldman) on October 09, 2008 (Suggest removal)
HENSKE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN LEFT OFF OF THE ROSTER. HE WAS WITH THE TEAM ALL YEAR, WHILE PEREZ CAME UP AT THE END. HENSKE CAN DO MUCH MORE FOR THE TEAM THAN PEREZ.
Suggest removalPEREZ IS A FUTURE PLAYER, HENSKE IS A PROVEN PLAYER NOW.
SAY IT ISN’T SO, JOE MADDON. BAD DECISION ON YOUR PART. HOPE IT DOESN’T COME BACK AND BITE YOU IN THE #####.