Forum: Talk Rays

TORONTO—Some weary Rays down in the clubhouse, ready to get out of here following tonight’s game and get on home.

Some changes in the lineup on getaway night, with Evan Longoria getting his first day off since being called up and someone besides Carl Crawford starting in left field for the first time this season.

Joe Maddon wanted to get Longoria, who is hitting .138 (4-for-29) on the road trip, a bit of a mental break, and the young third baseman didn’t argue.

“I don’t want a day off, I wouldn’t go in and ask him for a day off – obviously, I want to play every day,” said Longoria. “But it’s something that probably is needed right now.”

Crawford also welcomed the bit of rest that will come from serving as the DH, though he still considers it a full workday.

On the rehab front, Cliff Floyd went 3-for-4 in an extended spring game and managed to get himself caught in a rundown, which the Rays considered a good test for his knee. He’ll take BP at the Trop tomorrow (though the rest of the team will not, opting for individual hitting in the cage) and be evaluated from there. Maddon said Floyd definitely will not be activated tomorrow, but didn’t rule out him coming off the DL at any point after that.

Ah, one other pregame nugget I just noticed: the Pirates acquired Tampa Jesuit’s Jason Michaels from the Indians for a player to be named.

Here are the lineups:

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

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

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TORONTO—Joe Maddon called Carlos Pena into his office following tonight’s game, apparently attempting to get his slugger refocused on the positive after another rough night at the plate.

Pena struck out in three of his four at-bats tonight, giving him 10 strikeouts in his last 12 trips to the plate over three games. Maddon told reporters before meeting with Pena that he didn’t see anything wrong with Pena’s swing; he thought Pena had just expanded his strike zone too much the last couple of nights and was swinging at pitches he should have left alone.

From the way Pena described the chat, which lasted more than 20 minutes with the door closed, it had nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with peace of mind.

“Joe always has some great things to say,” said Pena. “All he wants to me to do is go out there and enjoy myself and not put too much pressure on myself. Just make sure I come out and have fun out there. Those are his words. He talks about how subconsciously sometimes time might have things in your mind, but he just wants me to go out there and play free, and I think it’s awesome. I’m so grateful for the people that I have around me, the support that I’ve got. It’s awesome.”

Pena admitted that “at times” he might have been pressing at the plate, trying to make too much happen. But after discussing the need for “clarity of mind,” among other things, Pena felt better about lies ahead for him.

“So what, you’ve had two days that have been kind of tough, the last two days,” he said. “Beyond that, you had two weeks straight of great swings, great contact, great at-bats. Am I going to define myself because of the last two days that I’ve had? It’s not practical to even think that way. That’s when it’s so important to, OK, you had a bad day? Throw it out the window, man. Throw it out the window and let’s just come back and play tomorrow.”

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TORONTO—A couple of tidbits from the minor-league side of things:

Jae Kuk Ryu has been placed on Durham’s 7-day disabled list with soreness in his elbow that apparently isn’t too serious. Nonetheless, the Rays signed 31-year-old former Yankees reliever Colter Bean to fill out Durham’s pitching staff. Bean, a giant sidearmer, most recently made a couple of starts for Tabasco of the Mexican League in April.

For some background, here’s a piece from the New York Times that ran last spring training.

In the meantime, Evan Meek has cleared waivers after being designated for assignment by the Pirates on Sunday. That means the Pirates are left to work out a deal with the Rays that will allow them to keep Meek and send the Rule 5 pick to the minors.

“We’re certainly working on getting something done,” Pirates GM Neal Huntington told MLB.com.

One more thing I forgot to mention earlier: Ben Zobrist is scheduled to DH for Vero Beach tonight at Lakeland. He’ll stay there and play in the field the next three day for the V-Rays. 

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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

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TORONTO—Good afternoon from Rogers Centre. Still seems weird to call the ol’ Skydome that, even though I never set foot in this place when it was called the Skydome. But whatever.

Some early news of the day from the Rays, and positive news at that. David Price started an extended spring training game against the Phillies today. He allowed two hits (both opposite-field singles, we’re told) and a run in three innings, striking out four without issuing a walk. He threw 47 pitches.

Other than that, it appears pretty quiet—at least on the visiting side. Everyone’s attention up here is focused on the Maple Leafs, who fired their coach today. I don’t see tonight’s humble Rays-Jays game getting much play in tomorrow’s newspapers on this side of the border…

Oh, and I can’t leave without passing along this late-breaking news from that ever-diligent Rays marketing department: two new acts (well, the acts aren’t exactly new) have been added to the Saturday night concert series: Gilberto Santa Rosa will perform following the June 14 game and (I wouldn’t make this up) Loverboy will take the stage July 5. Nothing says American independence like an aging group of rockers from Alberta, eh?

Carry on. 

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TORONTO—It’s the top of the sixth and the Blue Jays already have lost two shortstops today.

David Eckstein had to leave with a strained groin, and John McDonald just got carted off after rolling over his right ankle when it appeared his spikes got caught in the turf. McDonald’s injury looked awfully bad; hopefully he’ll come through it OK.

Marco Scutaro is now on playing short.

I wonder who the Rays’ third shortstop would be right now, after Bartlett and Cannizaro. Longoria moving over? Aki? 

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TORONTO—After a beautiful Monday, that nasty weather from Boston has followed the Rays here. As a result, the roof of the Rogers Centre is closed, which I have no doubt will make many a Ray happy. Some of the guys weren’t real enthused with the playing conditions at Fenway.

About the only pregame news centered on guys who aren’t here. It sounds like real progress is being made by Cliff Floyd and Ben Zobrist, and Al Reyes seems to be on the right track.

Floyd and Zobrist both played in extended spring training games today. Zobrist may actually join Vero Beach, which begins a four-game set at Lakeland tomorrow, and play with them the balance of the week. He’s scheduled to get the pins removed from his thumb Monday and Joe Maddon said it’s possible he may be ready to rejoin the Rays the next day, though we’ll see on that. It sounds like Floyd also could be ready for the Yankees series.

Reyes played catch from 130 feet and tried out some breaking balls while throwing off flat ground, apparently with no discomfort. He’ll play long-toss again tomorrow and is scheduled to get back on the mound Friday. If Reyes continues to feel OK, Maddon didn’t rule out the reliever returning at some point next week also.

In addition, an examination revealed no serious damage to Gary Glover’s shoulder, and he could come off the DL at or near the minimum number of days, said Maddon. Glover’s eligible to be activated this Saturday.

Here are today’s lineups, with a couple of former Blue Jays in there for the Rays in Hinske and Gross:

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

Blue Jays
Rios RF
Stewart LF
Rolen 3B
Stairs DH
Wells CF
Overbay 1B
Hill 2B
Zaun C
Eckstein SS
Burnett P

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BOSTON—In a late change, the Red Sox just announced David Ortiz has been scratched from the lineup with tightness in his right knee. Big Papi, of course, missed the last two games at the Trop with the same problem last weekend after diving into first base in the series opener.

That leaves the Sox a bit thin, as they didn’t make a move before the game to replace Brandon Moss, who underwent an emergency appendectomy last night.

Here’s the revamped lineup:

Ellsbury LF
Pedroia 2B
Youkilis 1B
Ramirez DH
Lowell 3B
Varitek C
Drew RF
Crisp CF
Lugo SS

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BOSTON—Well, all those gloom-and-doom weather forecasts can be wadded up and recycled at this point. It’s still sufficiently foggy that the buildings downtown are obscured, but there’s no rain. The tarp is off the field and rolled up and the radar looks completely clear.

So, we should be good to go for Scott Kazmir’s first start of 2008. Once again, he’ll be limited to about 100 pitches, but if he gets in a mess like Shields did yesterday, throwing around 30 pitches an inning, he might get cut short. The only problem is there is no obvious long man available tonight. Jason Hammel has thrown a little over 100 pitches in the last five days and J.P. Howell went a while last night, so it may be a combo of Kurt Birkins and Scott Dohmann if the Rays need to fill, and that probably wouldn’t be a good thing.

Perhaps the Rays can summon a bit of offense with B.J. Upton back in the middle of their order for the first time in this series. We shall see…

Rays
Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Upton CF
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Gomes DH
Hinske RF
Riggans C
Bartlett SS
Kazmir P

Red Sox
Crisp CF
Pedroia 2B
Ortiz DH
Ramirez LF
Lowell 3B
Youkilis 1B
Drew RF
Varitek C
Lugo SS
Lester P

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BOSTON—It took the Rays a while to come up with a lineup today, and the one they finally posted once again does not include B.J. Upton.

Joe Maddon said the concern is Upton swinging and missing, which is how he hurt his shoulder the other day. He will be available to pinch-hit and it sounds like the Rays expect to have him in there tomorrow, but they’ll wait until the morning to see how he feels.

In other news, an MRI on Al Reyes revealed biceps tendinitis. Nothing too severe, as Maddon was quick to point out, adding that he thought Reyes might only miss a couple more weeks. We’ll see on that front. Apparently Reyes may play catch Monday and go from there.

Scott Kazmir, as you might imagine, is bouncing off the walls in anticipation of his season debut tomorrow. The Rays’ one concern is the weather. They don’t want to get in a situation where he warms up, then has to sit around for an hour because of a rain delay. They’ll manage that very carefully tomorrow, with rain very much in the forecast.

Here are the lineups for tonight’s action, with no rain on the way as far as we can tell:

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

Red Sox
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Ortiz DH
Ramirez LF
Lowell 3B
Youkilis 1B
Drew RF
Varitek C
Lugo SS
Beckett P

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As James Shields tries to duplicate his shutout effort of Sunday against the Red Sox, he’ll depend heavily on his best pitch, the changeup. It’s one of the best in the game, actually, which was why it was worth the effort to get him to talk about its origin, how he throws it and when he uses it in games. Check out this special slide show presentation at tbo.com for more insight into the art of the change. (Be sure to scroll down as soon as the page is finished loading.)
-Carter Gaddis

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BOSTON—OK, that’s an overly sunny headline. It doesn’t look all that good out there. Cold (39 with the wind chill), gray and nasty once again.

But the good news is the rain that has fallen over town all morning and into the afternoon finally has moved out. As I type, the Fenway Park grounds crew is finishing the laborious process of rolling up the tarp that had covered the field since last night’s game ended early this morning.

And the word from the Sox is this game is expected to start on time. We’ll hold them to it, by God. Yesterday was not a terribly pleasant experience.

Besides, we’d better see some baseball today because tomorrow doesn’t look real promising. The nice folks at weather.com have pegged it at a 70 percent chance of rain tomorrow with rain early and showers in the afternoon. I can’t imagine how Scott Kazmir would feel if he had to wait a couple more days to pitch after waiting this long.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s focus on today, as James Shields looks to match that two-hit, complete-game shutout he weaved Sunday at the Trop.

More to come later…

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BOSTON—The Rays made the only really logical move available to them to clear a rotation spot for Scott Kazmir, telling Jason Hammel today he is headed to the bullpen.

It is a bullpen that suddenly needs a bit of help, with Gary Glover going on the DL today (see previous post) and some disturbing news on Al Reyes. Not only is he not ready to come back from the DL this weekend as expected, the Rays plan to send him for an MRI on his shoulder and don’t expect him back in the near future, according to Joe Maddon.

Hammel was 2-2 with a 4.88 ERA in five starts, walking 12 and striking out 15 in 27 2/3 innings. His last start was his worst, as he allowed 10 base-runners in 2 2/3 innings Tuesday at Baltimore.

“I’m disappointed,” said Hammel, “but it’s my job to help the team, and if this is the right move for the team I’ll gladly do it.”

Maddon said this isn’t a situation where the other starters need to worry about looking over their shoulders and wondering if a couple of bad starts might get them bumped out of the rotation in favor of Hammel. This is the way the Rays are going, and Hammel probably won’t get a chance to move back into the rotation unless someone gets hurt or completely goes in the tank.

Hammel has 10 career big-league appearances as a reliever, posting a 6.11 ERA. His career ERA in 28 starts is 6.41.

“I’m happy to still be a part of the team—that’s the way I look at it,” said Hammel. “I wasn’t ever really afraid of the move, but I saw it coming.”

In other news, Justin Ruggiano isn’t here yet but should be here for the game. His stay won’t last long, though. He’ll only be here today and tomorrow before going down Sunday to make room for Kazmir.

B.J. Upton, by the way, said his shoulder feels “great” and it sounds like he probably will be back in the lineup tomorrow.

Updating again, 5:35 p.m.: The Rays’ batting practice ended after about 5 or 10 minutes as showers rolled in over Fenway Park. The tarp is being put on the field. Looking at the radar, this seems like the back end of a system, but who knows. I’ll keep you posted…

Updating, 7 p.m.: The rain has shown no signs of letting up and an announcement has been made that the weather is expected to remain this way at least through 8:00. So, hang tight…

Updating, 8:15 p.m.: Well, it seems to be raining harder now. There was word a few minutes ago that there might be a small window—there’s always a window!—later on, perhaps around 9, but no one seemed sure about it. If things haven’t cleared up by then, though, it’ll be time to think about calling it a night. For the record, the teams share an off day Sept. 11, currently slated to be a day off for the Rays between Boston and New York.

Updating, 8:30 p.m.: And they just announced the best-case scenario has the game starting around 9:30, but again, we shall see…

Updating, 8:55 p.m.: The tarp is being rolled up and the infield prepared, with the first pitch scheduled for 9:30. 

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BOSTON—The plot thickens, much like the fog visible over downtown from the press box atop Fenway Park…

The Rays have placed Gary Glover on the 15-day DL with right shoulder tendinitis, a move that’s retroactive to April 26. Al Reyes, however, is not ready to be activated off the DL and remains in limbo. That means Kurt Birkins sticks around for at least a few more days, and with B.J. Upton down at least for today after straining his left shoulder yesterday, the Rays called Justin Ruggiano back up to provide outfield depth.

At the very least, the Glover move will give the Rays a break when it comes to clearing a spot for Scott Kazmir. Joe Maddon is expected to give us his rotation plans when we meet with him around 5. At this point, I’d be very surprised if the Rays didn’t put Jason Hammel in the bullpen, but we’ll see.

Here’s tonight’s lineup, with Gabe Gross taking over for Upton in center:

Iwamura 2B
Crawford LF
Gomes DH
Pena 1B
Longoria 3B
Hinske RF
Navarro C
Gross CF
Bartlett SS
Jackson P

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B.J. Upton has strained the left shoulder before, including once with the Rays in August of 2006 and once in the minors. So, when he did it again swinging his bat in the fifth inning of today’s game against the Orioles, he wasn’t as concerned as he might have been. Especially when he got back to the clubhouse and started feeling better immediately.

“It looks bad right away. It feels bad right away,” Upton said. “But this is the best it’s ever felt right after, so we shouldn’t think too much of it.”

Upton is expected to miss Friday’s game at Boston, but manager Joe Maddon said his CF and No. 3 batter could be ready to participate in Saturday’s game. That doesn’t mean he’ll start that day, but it’s a possibility.

When Upton did it in 2006, he missed three games.

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