Wake-Up Call: Waving goodbye to the postseason?

The Wake-Up Call greets you each weekday with news, views and a few Tampa Bay area sports offerings to anticipate for the day and night. We encourage suggestions and contributions.

Good morning!

Wave and a miss.

That's the signature call of a strikeout by Rays television broadcaster Dewayne Staats.

Wave and a miss.

We have heard it plenty this season.

If the Rays are indeed waving goodbye to their chances of repeating as American League East champions - they now trail the streaking New York Yankees by eight games and may need to settle for being in the thick of an AL wild-card race - the strikeout will be a major culprit.

The Rays have struck out a whopping 866 times, good for second in the AL and well ahead of the league average (737).

First baseman Carlos Pena (140) leads the AL in strikeouts.

Center fielder B.J. Upton (123) is third.

Third baseman Evan Longoria (98) is ninth.

It's nothing new, and we saw it continually during the monumentally successful 2008 season. The Rays (1,224 strikeouts) finished second in the AL. Three Tampa Bay players - (Pena, second at 166; Upton, sixth at 134; Akinori Iwamua, 10th at 131) - finished in the league's top 10 for whiffs.

Rays manager Joe Maddon said those numbers can't be analyzed in a vacuum.

He knows about the sabermetric philosophy that generally excuses strikeouts when the player has an acceptable on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

And he agrees - to a point.

"I don't think you put strikeouts in one big barrel and say it's OK," Maddon said before Tampa Bay embarked on its road trip, which concludes with a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels, beginning tonight. "It's built into our culture that the people we get here are going to get strikeouts, but they are also going to get walks.

"But when there's a runner on third, less than two outs, that's where a strikeout is a particular concern. When there's a runner on second base, nobody out, that's the bigger concern. It's about situation. That's when the strikeout becomes more annoying."

Nobody on, two outs, and Maddon is fine with this approach - go for it.

When runners are in scoring position, though, and a batter can't summon a productive result, that's losing baseball.

"When did it occur in the game?" Maddon said. "What was going on when the strikeout happened. That matters. That matters a lot."

Since the All-Star Game, the Rays are 13-9. In those nine defeats, the Rays batted .100 (4-for-40) with runners in scoring position. Fourteen times, the result was a strikeout.

Even in key victories last week, the Rays' critical strikeout tendencies became exasperating.

In a 10-4 romp against the Kansas City Royals, the Rays struck out 12 times, seven with runners in scoring position as add-on opportunities were wasted.

In a 4-2, 13-inning victory against the Red Sox, the Rays struck out 16 times. They loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth and 10th innings - and didn't score. Three of the six outs were swinging strikeouts.

"Look, I want us to get better, no question," Maddon said. "But I don't want to put a lot of emphasis there right now. I don't want guys attempting to do something outside of the norm. That's something for spring training. And we have spoken about it in spring training since 2006."

Strikeouts are an unmistakable part of modern baseball. Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard set the all-time single-season strikeout record (199) in 2007. And that hallowed mark lasted one whole year. Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Mark Reynolds struck out 204 times in 2008.

Don't look now, but Pena is projected for 207 strikeouts.

But Reynolds himself is projected to whiff 220 times this season (although his baseball-leading 36 homers counteract that negative).

Two hundred twenty strikeouts?

Oh, dear!

Or is it: Oh, (Rob) Deer!

"I've never been a proponent of the strikeout," Maddon said. "You've got to give some credit to the pitcher occasionally. A guy like Zack Greinke, he can do that to you. Do I want us to strike out less? Yes."

Down the stretch, the Rays probably have no choice. They must be more productive with runners in scoring position. They must get more from those at-bats, not a steady stream of strikeouts.

Or else they're probably waving goodbye to the postseason.

Presley gets an opportunity

Appalachian State University sophomore quarterback DeAndre Presley (Middleton) already was considered the man in 2010. He simply needed to play one more season behind Armanti Edwards, a three-time All-American and centerpiece of the Mountaineers' unforgettable upset of Michigan to open the 2007 college football season.

Apparently, Presley will be pressed into service a bit sooner.

Last week, Edwards injured his right foot in a mowing accident and may not return until early September. Last year, Presley showed he was ready, rushing for 156 yards and passing for 158 more in Appalachian State's 35-10 victory against Western Carolina in the 2008 regular-season finale. Presley was named the Southern Conference's Offensive Player of the Week and the league's Freshman of the Week.

With Edwards undergoing offseason knee surgery, Presley also got most of the snaps during spring practice.

Royals honored by alma mater

And speaking of Appalachia State, former Bucs punter Mark Royals will be inducted into the ASU Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 26, then introduced during that afternoon's home game against Samford University.

Royals was at Appalachian State from 1983-86 and served as the starting punter for three seasons. He ranks fifth in career punting average (41.9 yards) at the school.

Royals, who had a 16-season NFL career (with eight teams), had two stints with the Bucs (1990-91 and 1999-2001). He led the NFL in punting average (45.9 yards) with the New Orleans Saints in 1997.

Span wears out Tigers

The Detroit Tigers managed to cool off Minnesota Twins center fielder Denard Span (Tampa Catholic) on Sunday, holding him to 0-for-3. But in the previous two games, Span went 9-for-11, including Saturday night's 5-for-5 performance.

It was his second career five-hit game - the other was July 3 against Detroit.

In fact, Span is batting .430 (40-for-93) lifetime against the Tigers.

"He hits us like he's in our meeting before the game," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said on Saturday night.

What a week for Coghlan

Florida Marlins left fielder Chris Coghlan (East Lake) was 4-for-6 in Sunday's 12-3 victory against the Philadelphia Phillies. Coghlan set a team record with his eighth straight multi-hit game. In that eight-game span, Coghlan is batting .500 (19-for-38) and he's now batting .285 overall.

Burgess blasts 19th homer

Potomac Nationals right fielder Michael Burgess (Hillsborough) smashed a tape-measure three-run homer in Saturday night's 9-0 victory against the Wilmington Blue Rocks. It was his 19th homer overall, which is tied for second place in the Class A Carolina League. He was 2-for-4 with five RBIs, then went 2-for-4 on Sunday, lifting his batting average to .235.

Birthday wishes

Happy birthday to former Rays first baseman Dan Johnson, who always will have a cherished spot in franchise lore. Last season, with the Red Sox about to overtake the Rays for first place in the American League East, Johnson's pinch-hit ninth-inning home run off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon tied the game (and the Rays won 5-4). Making things more incredible, Johnson was recalled from Triple-A Durham that morning and arrived at Fenway Park just prior to the game due to flight delays. Johnson, now with the Yokohama BayStars in Japan's Central League, turns 30 today.

The Answer Man

Mike Hogan, then a newly hired sports information assistant at the University of South Florida, was in the right-field stands at Tropicana Field and caught the home run ball that was Wade Boggs' 3,000th career hit on Aug. 7, 1999. Hogan, still employed by USF, returned the ball to Boggs.

Monday trivia

Here's our daily sports trivia question, featuring a Tampa Bay/Florida spin. Try your luck by commenting below.

Who was the last team - other than the Rays - to have three batters finish in the top 10 for American League strikeouts?

Check for the answer in Tuesday's Wake-Up Call.