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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 vs. Jays: Sweep?

Posted Aug 9, 2012 by Joey Johnston

Updated Aug 9, 2012 at 11:51 AM

ST. PETERSBURG—Greetings from Tropicana Field, where the Rays are going for a three-game sweep against the Toronto Blue Jays. Game time is 1:10 p.m. (no TV, stay with us on Twitter, JJohnstonTrib for updates).

Rays rookie LHP Matt Moore (8-7, 3.84 ERA) will oppose Blue Jays RHP Henderson Alvarez (7-8, 4.47 ERA). Wednesday’s 3-2 victory assured Tampa Bay’s 16th consecutive home series victory against the Blue Jays (amazing!).

Some Thursday morning housekeeping:

* Evan Longoria, making his third straight start after returning from injury, is in the Rays’ lineup, batting cleanup at DH. Makes sense. Longoria is 4-for-6 with two home runs against Alvarez.

* DH Luke Scott (oblique) took some high-intensity batting practice and says he feels good. He might being a rehabilitation stint as soon as Friday. Stay tuned on that.

* Interesting quirk in the lineup. Ben Zobrist is at SS for the first time since 2009, when he played 13 games there. Zobrist came to the Rays as a shortstop in 2006, but has largely played 2B and OF the last few years. Zobrist said it wasn’t a big deal, he was willing to anything for the team and said it would be “like riding a bike.’’ Before the game, though, he did head to the field for some grounders at short. Good idea to get used to that bike again.

After today, the Rays go on a three-city road trip, beginning with the opener in Minnesota on Friday night.

The lineups:

Blue Jays

Rajai Davis LF

Colby Rasmus CF

Edwin Encarnacion 1B

Yunel Escobar SS

David Cooper DH

Moises Sierra RF

Jeff Mathis C

Omar Vizquel 2B

Adeiny Hechavarria 3B

———-

Henderson Alvarez RHP

Rays

Sam Fuld LF

B.J. Upton CF

Matt Joyce RF

Evan Longoria DH

Ben Zobrist SS

Carlos Pena 1B

Jeff Keppinger 3B

Ryan Roberts 2B

Jose Lobaton C

——————-

Matt Moore LHP