Shortstop shuffle

Posted May 7, 2008 by Marc Lancaster

Updated May 7, 2008 at 04:39 PM

TORONTO—From the other side, it sounds as if the Jays aren’t as bad off at shortstop as it looked last night. Apparently John McDonald, who everyone assumed was badly injured last night by the way he looked after going down, came in today and promptly started taking swings in the batting cage. And David Eckstein got an MRI on his sore hip.

Nonetheless, the Jays felt they needed to cover themselves a bit at short, so they called up old friend Jorge Velandia and sent down touted prospect Adam Lind, who was benched the other day in favor of Shannon Stewart. Velandia is not in the starting lineup tonight, but he’ll provide some insurance. You’ll recall Velandia had a big moment or two in his time with the Rays last September.

We were kicking around the who’s-the-third-shortstop question I pondered last night, and Joe Maddon’s answer after some thought was either Longoria or Iwamura, with Upton perhaps the third choice. He said it probably would depend on which position was easier to fill, and with the current roster configuration that likely would be third base, with Hinske sliding in there and Longoria going to short.

Not much else going on at the moment. The Rays have the same lineup as last night as they look to build another winning streak.

Rays
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Upton CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Hinske DH
Navarro C
Gross RF
Bartlett SS
Garza P

Jays
Rios RF
Stewart LF
Rolen 3B
Stairs DH
Wells CF
Overbay 1B
Hill 2B
Barajas C
Scutaro SS
Marcum P