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No Problems For Rays' Pena In First Test

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 6, 2009

BRADENTON After hitting the first pitch he saw in anger this spring off the top of the left-field wall and collecting a bloop two-run double the following inning, Carlos Pena was feeling pretty good about his 2009 debut.

"I basically go out there and try to do exactly the same thing [as in practice]," Pena said after going 2-for-2 with three RBIs today against the Pirates. "I was glad I got the favorable result. But my whole intent was just to see the ball and to track it all the way in and let all the chips fall where they may, and it worked out."

Pena's step-into-a-uniform-and-hit-one-360-feet routine earned him some grief from his teammates, but not as much as he got after an awkward tumble into home plate to score on Dioner Navarro's first-inning single.

"I think the guys were making more fun of the fact that I belly-flopped at home plate," Pena said. "It looked like I slid, but in reality I just fell. I lost all control of my body. I got a lot of comments about that. Some guys even wrote down some scores – '6.5'."

Truth be told, that 180-foot scamper home was a truer indication of where Pena stands than his two opposite-field doubles. The torn abdominal muscles that bothered him in the final months of last season and prompted a January surgical procedure affected him most acutely when he was running. Today was his first test at game speed and he seems to have passed it.

"I'm still conscious of it and obviously I'm going to have to treat it and do the icing, because it gets sore. The muscles are still getting used to all the activity," Pena said. "But overall I'm very happy with the way I felt out there. I remember being at second base and [third base coach Tom] Foley asking me, 'How are your legs?' and I was like, 'I'm ready – let's go.' Sure enough, (Navarro) had to follow up with that base hit, and I wasn't about to let Foley down so I kept on going home."

Pena will take Saturday off and said he probably will be back in the lineup Sunday when the Rays face the Red Sox in Fort Myers. He'll stay on the every-other-day plan for a while as he continues to ramp up to full speed. After a couple of weeks relegated to practice, though, at least he's finally back in games.

"I was just happy to be playing, to be participating, hanging out with the guys and being on the same field with the guys," he said. "It felt really, really good."

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