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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 @ Yankees: Pena to sit tonight and Thursday

Posted Sep 22, 2010 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 22, 2010 at 06:33 PM

ROGER MOONEY
NEW YORK—Carlos Pena is not in the lineup tonight despite the fact the Rays are facing Yankee righty A.J. Burnett. He won’t be in the lineup Thursday, either, when the Rays face CC Sabathia.

The slumping first baseman, whose average is at .201 after going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts in Tuesday’s loss, is batting .143 against Burnett.

“His numbers against Burnett overall are not good, and the same thing (Thursday) with Sabathia, so it’s kind of a nice two days to give him off and try to rearrange how he’s thinking a little bit,” Joe Maddon said.

Pena spoke at length before batting practice and carried his positive attitude through each answer to each question.

“I feel better than what my numbers are,” Pena said. “I feel better than what people think despite the situation, and that’s the truth.”

He said it’s a matter of going back to Opening Day 2007 when the Rays opened the season at Yankee Stadium. Pena, who made the team because of an injury to Greg Norton, wasn’t in the lineup and never reached the field during the series, but he was thrilled to be wearing a major league uniform, even if it was the uniform of the worst team in baseball, he added with a smile.

He said he also goes back to what his dad always tells him: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

“What matters is how I think, and I think good things will come,” Pena said.

Still, Maddon believes Pena needs a break.

“Typically, he’s always very stoic, he’s very upbeat when I talk to him. I know every time he goes up there he believes something good is going to happen, and I do to,” Maddon said. “Right now he’s in a little bit of a rut. It’s happened to him before, and a lot of times it seems when we cut him some slack he responds really well. I was really wanting to ride it through to at least today and give him tomorrow off, but just watching yesterday and how that all unfolded, I just think it would be kind of good to give him two, today and tomorrow. I just think it’s the right thing to do right now, and I feel really good about Friday.”

B.J. Upton also isn’t the lineup, because he’s cooled off as of late and because he’s batting .194 against Burnett. Maddon said Upton will return to the lineup Thursday.

“Just watching the swing itself, a little bit lengthy, I think, compared to what he had been doing over the last five weeks,” Maddon said. “And (Burnett), the numbers aren’t especially good.”

Here are the lineups:

RAYS
John Jaso DH
Ben Zobrist CF
Carl Crawford LF
Evan Longoria 3B
Dan Johnson 1B
Matt Joyce RF
Jason Bartlett SS
Reid Brignac 2B
Dioner Navarro C
—
Wade Davis RHP (12-9, 4.19)

YANKEES
Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Lance Berkman DH
Curtis Granderson CF
Francisco Cervelli C
—
A.J. Burnett RHP (10-13, 5.08)