Riggans, Bartlett OK after wild finish

Posted Aug 3, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated Aug 3, 2008 at 05:49 PM

Just another day at the office here.

The postgame medical report was mostly positive, with X-rays on both Jason Bartlett and Shawn Riggans coming back negative after Fernando Rodney got a piece of both of them in consecutive at-bats.

Bartlett’s finger was cut and Joe Maddon questioned whether he’d be able to play tomorrow, but the Rays are not expected to make a roster move to bring up a shortstop before tomorrow’s game.

Riggans was his usual self afterward, offering up this plum assessment of getting drilled in the chest by a 93 mph pitch:

“It knocked the wind out of me there for a minute; I couldn’t breathe. That’s why I had to go back down to a knee,” said Riggans. “But as long as I got the runner over, that’s all that matters. That wasn’t the best way to get the runner over, but it worked out, didn’t it?”

Even before Bartlett had to leave, the Rays were prepared to play a little National League ball if the game went to the 11th. Maddon already had decided to take Jonny Gomes from the DH spot and put him in right field, which would have forced the Rays’ pitchers to hit from then on. With Bartlett’s injury, the plan was for Evan Longoria to slide over to shortstop, Willy Aybar to stay in the game at third, Gomes to go to right and the pitcher to bat in the ninth spot.

Incidentally, Edwin Jackson spent most of the postgame insisting he was ready to play right field, pinch-run, pinch-hit or whatever. And there was a rumor Andy Sonnanstine actually spent some time in the batting cage, but that couldn’t be immediately confirmed.

The final word goes to Troy Percival:

“People were saying the turning point of the season was in Toronto when I stunk it up, so I thought I’d do it again today, see if I could get us going again.”