Pena's Aching To Play Without Stomach Pain

Carlos Pena doesn't remember how he tore a muscle in his stomach last August, but he remembers everything about the aftermath. Each time he uncoiled the trademark uppercut swing of a power hitter, the result was sharp, unrelenting pain.

"It was horrible," he said.

If it had been any other season, Pena probably would have shut it down and gotten the problem fixed. As we know, though, last season was anything but normal for the Tampa Bay Rays - so not only did Pena soldier through, he also played his best baseball after the injury.

We'll get to that in a bit, but Pena has something he wants to say first.

"I am so happy with the way I am progressing," he said, and he emphasized it in a way that suggested both relief and excitement. "It's sore, but there is a big difference between pain and soreness. It will be sore. I can handle sore."

After surgery in January to repair the tear; Pena is doing all the work and letting loose during exhibition games like the injury never happened.

"The way he is moving around is extremely encouraging," Rays baseball operations chief Andrew Friedman said. "I held my breath a little bit the other day when he dove for a ball down the line, but he got up fine."

By any comparison, Pena had a terrific overall season in 2008. His work in August and September was extraordinary, though. The Rays were wobbling then with injuries that knocked out Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria, while B.J. Upton was fighting through a torn shoulder muscle that sapped his power.

Pena responded by lifting the Rays on his shoulders - no easy task, considering how much his stomach ached. He had 13 of his 31 homers and 57 of his 101 total RBIs in the final two months of the season.

"The pain was pretty much unbearable," he said. "If I was sleeping on one side and wanted to flip to the other side, it killed me. If I stayed in one spot I'd be OK, but when I'd move, the pain would shoot right up me. If I slipped an inch in the shower, oh man. Checked swings were the worst because you with your abs and then stop [suddenly] with your abs.

"I remember feeling it the first time while I was running. It was like, 'Whoa, what was that?' I thought it would go away. But then I got and MRI and saw how bad it really was. It got to the point where I was thinking, 'Don't even get another MRI.' I just didn't want to know."

During games, the training staff would fetch heating pads between each inning for his stomach. There wasn't much else they could do because only time and inactivity (or surgery) was going to fix the problem. Since there was a pennant to be had, inactivity wasn't an option. For anybody.

"Everyone did a little bit," he said. "B.J. playing the way he did with his shoulder, everybody else who played through hurts, that's what it takes. I guess our desire exceeded our pain."