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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 will try to avoid letdown versus Indians

Posted Jul 8, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 06:35 PM

By TONY FABRIZIO

ST. PETERSBURG - The Rays have done smoe exceptional work over the last 10 days, taking four of five from the Red Sox and three of four from the Twins, and they’ll try not to let it go for naught over the next four days against the Indians.

Cleveland sits last in the AL Central at 33-51, but the Indians historically have been a handful for Tampa Bay. Although the Rays are 2-0 against the Indians this year, they are 33-65 lifetime against them, which is their worst record against any AL opponent.

Struggling Rookie right-hander Wade Davis gets the ball tonight against righty Jake Westbrook, who is 6-2 lifetime against the Rays but hasn’t faced them since 2007. The Indians are without one of their most dangerous hitters, Shin-soo Choo, who is on the DL with a thumb sprain.

In pre-game news, Rays manager Joe Maddon said right-handed pitcher Matt Garza will make his next start as scheduled Saturday despite pitching two-thirds of an inning of relief Wednesday night against the Red Sox and earning a save. Maddon did say Garza will be on a “shorter leash.”

Maddon also said the coaching staff will discuss how the starting pitching rotation will be set coming out of the All-Star break tomorrow. If the order remains unchanged, David Price, Davis and James Shields would pitch against the Yankees next weekend at Yankee Stadium.

Of course, Price (12-4) also is likely to pitch in the All-Star Game. Yankees and AL All-Star manager Joe Girardi confirmed Thursday that Price is an “extremely strong candidate” to get the starting nod.

Here are tonight’s lineups:

INDIANS

Michael Brantley, CF
Jayson Nix, 2B
Carlos Santana, C
Travis Hafner, DH
Austin Kearns, RF
Jhonny Peralta, 3B
Trevor Crowe, LF
Andy Marte, 1B
Jason Donald, SS
—
Jake Westbrook

RAYS

Ben Zobrist, RF
Carl Crawford, LF
Evan Longoria, 3B
Carlos Pena, 1B
Sean Rodriguez, 2B
Matt Joyce, DH
B.J. Upton, CF
John Jaso, C
Jason Bartlett, SS
—
Wade Davis, RHP