Crawford reaches milestone in Rays loss to Yankees

Jeremy Hellickson is coming.

Can he hit, too?

The Rays, who have touted their depth all season, will have that depth tested over the next few days now that Grant Balfour is out for possibly six weeks with an intercostal strain suffered Friday while horsing around with pitching coach Jim Hickey, Ben Zobrist's stiff lower back is still in question and Carlos Pena hobbled off for an MRI after leaving Saturday's 5-4 loss to the Yankees in the sixth inning because of a sore right foot.

If Pena or Zobrist turns into a long-term injury, Dan Johnson and his 30 home runs won't be far behind.

Right now, the Rays have settled on Hellickson, who will start Monday against the Twins in an effort to give the other five starters an extra day of rest.

The Rays will not use a six-man rotation, Manager Joe Maddon said.

"Everybody moves back, just one day for everybody," Maddon said. "(Hellickson's) going to slide in on Monday; we'll tell you the rest of the plot after that. Part of it is, it's just a situation where we just want to at this moment give the other guys a little bit more rest. It's our attempt at being prudent at really monitoring their pitches and innings.

"It's not about an injury. It's about being comfortable with this pitcher as well as trying to give these other guys an extra day."

The Rays are in the middle of a stretch of 20 games in 20 days. Their next off day is Aug. 12. Using Hellickson, even if it is for one start, will act as an off day for the five-man rotation.

Now it's clear why Hellickson was pulled from his minor-league start Thursday after three innings. The official word was the organization was trying monitor Hellickson's workload. Apparently they are trying to do the same with Matt Garza, James Shields, Jeff Niemann, David Price and Wade Davis.

Hellickson, the Rays' top pitching prospect, is 12-3 with a 2.45 ERA in 21 starts with Triple-A Durham. He has thrown 1172/3 innings.

Of immediate concern is Pena's foot.

"It's a little pain in the bottom of the foot," Maddon said. "We'll know more (today)."

The Rays can ill afford to lose Pena for an extended period of time now that he is finally hitting.

The good news is that Matt Joyce remains hot after blasting his third home run of the week during the sixth inning Saturday to give the Rays a 4-3 lead in front of another full house at Tropicana Field. It was the second straight night that Joyce gave the Rays a lead with a home run.

Garza, whose bid for consecutive no-hitters ended when Robinson Cano doubled in the second inning, allowed the Yankees to tie the score at 4 in the seventh when he hung a 3-2 curveball to Nick Swisher.

Garza also allowed the Yankees to erase a 3-1 deficit in the sixth when Mark Teixeira drilled a two-run homer to right field with Derek Jeter on first base.

"We battled and fought back, and this one falls on me," Garza said. "They spot me a two-run lead and I gave it away. They spot me another one and I gave it away. That's uncalled for. I had these guys beat, and I just gave it away. That's all there is to it."

Cano, who added a second double in his next at-bat against Garza, crushed a long home run off Rafael Soriano with one out in the ninth for the winning run.

Soriano, pitching in a non-save situation, retired Alex Rodriguez on a pop-up to short to start the inning. Rodriguez, who walked and scored in his first at-bat, was 0-for-3 and is still sitting on 599 career home runs.

Those cameras that flash during every pitch to Rodriguez will be in action again today during the finale of the three-game series.

"Overall, I think Matt pitched a really good game," Maddon said. "They just beat us by the homer. Later in the game, that's all they did. They're very capable of doing that. We got them (Friday) with the homer and they got us (Saturday)."