Location: St. Petersburg, Fla. | Ballpark: Tropicana Field (36,048) | Spring Training: St. Petersburg, Fla.
Owner: Stuart Sternberg | GM: Andrew Friedman | Manager: Joe Maddon | World Championships: 0
Offense continues to be a mystery for the Rays, who are looking for help externally but finding ways to win anyway.
Friday, they went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position, left 10 on and still won.
Their first run was the product of an infield single, two groundouts and a clutch two-out hit by Evan Longoria.
The second was the result of a double by slumping B.J. Upton, just his second extra-base hit in 11 games, and a pair of errors.
The third required the speed of catcher Dioner Navarro, who smacked a leadoff double, then tagged up from third and beat the throw from strong-armed Royals right fielder Jose Guillen.
Manager Joe Maddon said he continues to have confidence in the hitters they have, and pleased with their approach and effort.
"Offensively, I'm good with the at-bats," Maddon said. "The guys are focused, the at-bats are good, it's just not happening right now. But it's going to."
RAYS 5, ROYALS 3: The Rays overcame another bad offensive night Friday with good pitching to snap a seven-game road losing streak. Carlos Pena's ninth-inning homer provided the final cushion.
Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
Now we have Maddon talking about maybe Rocco being the right handed outfielder the team needs. I'm not sure how he's keeping his disease in order, but if he can come up and contribute why not? I know the Rocco deal comes up every few months, but right now he's doing well in AA.
Amazing how quickly the message board trolls Goat and Tom Terrific disappear and vanish into thin air when the Rays perform in their usual strong and winning ways. It just makes me laugh - they are like bandwaggon fans, but working in a negative fashion, lol... gotta feel a little sorry for them.
The Rays have lost 7 in a row they need to change things up a bit how about calling up David Price this guy is a future ace! In AA (double a) David Price has a 4-0 record with a 1.38 ERA 26 innings and 22 strikeouts in four starts, in A ball he went 4-0 with a 1.82 ER
