TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rays Pitchers Ready To Hit

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - As it turns out, Andy Sonnanstine was ahead of the game a bit.

As the Rays wrapped up the regular season in Detroit three weeks ago, Sonnanstine decided to grab a bat and take some hacks.

"Just kind of wishful thinking and making sure I was prepared if we got to the World Series," he admitted this week.

Well, here the Rays are. And when Game 3 gets under way, they'll be playing without a designated hitter for the first time since wrapping up their road interleague schedule in Pittsburgh on June 29. That means the pitchers will have to worry about something besides pitching for the first time in quite a while, which is always an adjustment.

The starting pitchers and a few interlopers - Edwin Jackson, David Price - have taken batting practice a couple of times this week, but that's about all the formal work they've had in months. It's quite a contrast from their normal schedule heading into interleague play, which features a few weeks of structured BP sessions led by pitching coach Jim Hickey. But it's all they could do in the time allotted. Now we'll see who gets lucky at the plate.

"There's no telling," Manager Joe Maddon said.

The Rays' Game 3 starter, Matt Garza, is universally considered the weakest offensive player among the Rays' starting pitchers. But the next two scheduled starters for games at Citizens Bank Park, Sonnanstine and Scott Kazmir, handle the bat fairly well.

Rays pitchers were 3-for-21 at the plate during the regular season, but it was all downhill after a fast start. Sonnanstine collected hits in the first two at-bats this season by a Rays pitcher, May 16 at St. Louis, and the hurlers were 1-for-19 from that point forward.

Sonnanstine recalled something 1B Carlos Pena mentioned back during interleague play as a sort of mission statement for the group.

"He said all of our pitchers are just excited about the possibility of getting a hit," Sonnanstine said. "We don't dread going to the plate. We're excited that we might have success, because nothing is expected of us."

WINNING CURES ALL ILLS

A reporter mentioned to Cliff Floyd on Friday that just about everything had gone right for the Rays this season except seeing their plans for a new waterfront stadium fall by the wayside. That comment prompted one of Floyd's trademark tell-it-to-me-straight monologues.

"Nobody cares about that stuff," Floyd began. "Hell, for 41/2 months, we couldn't get nobody to come watch us anyway, so what the hell are you worried about a stadium for? If they get a stadium, great. These players don't care about a stadium. All we want to do is win.

"And I'll tell you one thing: When you win, it eliminates all the B.S. about the stadium and about the turf and about St. Pete instead of Tampa. It eliminates every single thing. Players come to the park at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and get ready to play a big-league baseball game. As opposed to, when you're losing, the stadium stinks. And when you're losing, the turf stinks. My knees hurt. All that other stuff, throw that out the window when you're winning. Hopefully we'll continue to win and nobody will have any problems."

PHANATICS WON'T BE A PHACTOR

Maddon said he doesn't believe the famously fierce Philadelphia crowds will bother his team in any way considering the hostile environments they have encountered all year.

"That is not my concern," Maddon said. "I think we'll be able to handle that. Coming out in Chicago - that was intense for me. That 'blackout' thing, I think that is awesome. And then playing in Fenway all the time and New York all the time, I think our guys are going to be OK."

THIS AND THAT

Maddon seemed to be leaning toward starting Gabe Gross in right field tonight against Jamie Moyer, but he indicated Ben Zobrist is also a possibility. ... Jason Bartlett's safety squeeze bunt in Game 2 was only the second successful attempt at that play by the Rays this season. Fernando Perez got one down exactly one month earlier, in the first game of a doubleheader at Baltimore. ... Game 2 drew an 8.1 rating nationally for Fox, down 27 percent from the 11.1 drawn by Game 2 last year. It drew a 31.3 rating in Tampa/St. Petersburg and a 30.7 in Philadelphia. ... That staple of NL games, the double switch, doesn't figure to play too prominently with the Rays. In most normal situations, the only starter they would swap out during the game would be the right fielder, so Maddon doesn't figure to do much wheeling and dealing there.

Marc Lancaster

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT