Roger Mooney covers the 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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Posted Oct 22, 2008 by Marc Lancaster
Updated Oct 22, 2008 at 03:30 PM
Ben Zobrist has seen action off the bench in the playoffs but hasn’t had a start. He’ll get one tonight, in something of a surprise move by Rays manager Joe Maddon. Rather than going with Rocco Baldelli or Fernando Perez against the lefty Cole Hamels, the switch-hitting Zobrist will be in right field for Game 1 of the World Series.
Other than that, the Rays’ lineup is as expected, with Willy Aybar in there as the DH. If Aybar wasn’t going so well at the plate, Maddon might have contemplated using Baldelli in that slot, but Aybar was big in the ALCS and the Rays will hope he can keep it rolling.
Here’s the full rundown:
Akinori Iwamura 2B
B.J. Upton CF
Carlos Pena 1B
Evan Longoria 3B
Carl Crawford LF
Willy Aybar DH
Dioner Navarro C
Ben Zobrist RF
Jason Bartlett SS
Scott Kazmir P
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Reader Comments
Por (RICH) on October 22, 2008 (Suggest removal)
HOW INTERESTING TO SEE ZOBRIST BACK IN THE [OF] WITH AYBAR AS THE [DH]. <> IN CASE WE DO NOT HAVE ROCCO NEXT YEAR I LIKE THIS LINEUP HAVING 3 [SW] HITTERS.<> I THINK MADDON WILL ALSO TEST WILLY IN [R]COME THIS SPRING. <> MIGHT EVEN SEE A NEW [DH ] IN THE GROUP BY 2009 !! ALWAYS GETTING SOME BETTER !!!
Suggest removalPor (Mark) on October 22, 2008 (Suggest removal)
what is Maddon smoking? Zobrist are you kidding me, instead of Rocco or Perez?
Suggest removalZobrist could’t hit top AAA lefties batting righty and now they expect him to hit the best lefty in the majors.
Zobrist is not an outfielder. He had one hot week, the rest of the year he was a .200 hitter at best. Maddon screwed over Hinske for Gross, now he
messes with Rocco by playing Zobrist.
I am in shock!