Team won't rush Kapler's return

With as many as seven players on their expanded roster available to play right field, the Rays are "not in a big hurry" to bring Gabe Kapler back from the DL, Manager Joe Maddon acknowledged Friday.

Kapler was the primary right fielder against left-handed pitching earlier in the year, but he was batting .206 (20-for-97) against lefties when he went on the 15-day DL on Aug. 16 with a sprained ankle.

Because he was on the DL on Aug. 31, Kapler, still a career .284 hitter against lefties, is eligible for the postseason if the Rays get there.

"We're going to try to reevaluate it in about a week or 10 days (to see) what's going on with him," Maddon said. "Right now we're okay, based on the fact we have the (rest of) September. So right now, he's in a limbo kind of setting."

Matt Joyce got the start in right on Friday night. Rookie Desmond Jennings played there Wednesday, and Ben Zobrist, who played second base Friday, will continue to get a lot of work there.

Sean Rodriguez, newcomer Brad Hawpe, newly promoted Rocco Baldelli and Dan Johnson ("in an emergency," Maddon said) can also play in right.

"It's great to have such a nice contingency on the bench, but it's going to be difficult to keep them all sharp," Maddon said. "But I'm going to try to do that."

Doc Maddon

Maddon said he'll "never forget" Thursday's ceremony at Lafayette College, where he was presented with an honorary doctor of letters degree and received a special gift from his family.

With his wife, Jaye, mother, Beanie, and other family members on hand, Maddon spoke to a group of about 200 in the ceremony on campus in Easton, Pa. He had attended Lafayette from 1972-76 and played football and baseball there.

"I really owe an extreme debt of gratitude to (school) president (Daniel) Weiss and the board of trustees," Maddon said. "What they did yesterday really exceeded any kind of expectation I had.

"Receiving a doctorate degree from that school and being included in a really small number of people ... that also includes (famed writer) Stephen Crane from the late 1800s, who attended there for a brief moment, is something they don't do every day."

The program also included a "hysterical" video from Maddon's two children and two granddaughters and a surprise gift from family members who were there.

"So I'm standing up there and my niece and nephew come up with this little box, and it's a Bible that my dad had in World War II," Maddon said. "A small pocket bible he kept in the field in World War II. And I didn't even know it existed. ...

"So they give me this in front of everybody. No chance (of holding back emotion)."

Maddon's father, Joseph Anthony Maddon, died in 2002 at age 82.

Odds and ends

Baldelli will hit mainly against left-handed pitching, meaning there's a chance he could get a start next week against Boston's Jon Lester. ... Maddon said he started Reid Brignac at shortstop to give Jason Bartlett two days off in a row and because of Brignac's batting average (.478) at Camden Yards. ... The Rays may have caught a break with the Orioles pushing back LHP Brian Matusz's scheduled start Sunday to manage his innings. Although the 23-year-old is 6-12, he went 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA in August and was named AL Rookie of the Month. Chris Tillman, a 22-year-old righty who is 1-4 with a 7.92 ERA, is expected to start Sunday.

Tony Fabrizio