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Ex-Padre Gomes glad to be a Ray

 
Published May 10, 2013

ST. PETERSBURG — RHP Brandon Gomes doesn't know how things would have worked out had he not been traded from the Padres to the Rays as part of the December 2010 Jason Bartlett deal.

But he is pretty certain things couldn't have gone much better. He made it to the big leagues a month into the 2011 season and has made 69 appearances for the Rays over the three seasons.

"It all worked out," Gomes said Thursday. "It worked out well. I really enjoyed my time (in San Diego). They were very good to me. It just so happened that it worked best, I think, for a lot of us that we got traded over here because I don't think you could be involved in a better organization than what we have here."

Of the four players the Rays got for Bartlett, two are in the bullpen, Gomes and LHP Cesar Ramos. INF Cole Figueroa is at Triple A. RHP Adam Russell made 36 appearances for the Rays in 2011 and was released. Bartlett, the MVP of the Rays' 2008 World Series team, played 168 games over the 2011-12 seasons with the Padres and is now said to be unofficially retired.

Gomes had spent two full seasons at Double-A San Antonio despite impressive numbers at the time of the trade, so it didn't seem the Padres had him in their primary plans. Ramos had already spent time in San Diego in 2009-10 and said it's not as easy for him to say things worked out better.

"Baseball's funny; you just never know," he said. "I'm happy here, and I'm here doing everything I can to help the team just like I was doing there."

MYERS OUT: Top prospect Wil Myers was pulled from Triple-A Durham's game after two innings Thursday with what the Rays said was an upset stomach. The outfielder's removal from the game sparked immediate Internet speculation that he was being called up, which was not the case. Several top Rays officials, including executive vice president Andrew Friedman, were at Thursday's game.

MOLINA OUT: C Jose Molina left after the seventh due a bruised right knee, hit by a foul tip a few innings earlier and in the same spot he was hit in Chicago last month. He likely will be limited to emergency duty tonight but isn't expected to be out long. "It just kept getting sorer and sorer and stiffer,'' manager Joe Maddon said.

GUESSING GAME: RHP Alex Cobb said he would do research and also rely on pitching coach Jim Hickey's scouting reports to prepare for facing a Padres team tonight he admittedly doesn't know much about.

"I'll have to go in the video room and kind of look at guys a little bit," Cobb said. "This is a team that we never even see on TV much or anything like that, so it's going to be a completely new list of names for me and a new approach."

SCORING CHANGE: Major League Baseball overturned the postgame change made Saturday by Coors Field official scorer Dave Plati, reinstating the error on SS Ben Zobrist and thus making five of the runs scored off David Price unearned. The change reduced Price's ERA by a full run, from 6.25 to 5.24 going into play Thursday. MAKING UP: Rays and Royals players have agreed on June 3 as the makeup date for the May 2 snowed-out game and are now waiting for MLB to look at the logistics and make it official.

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MINOR MATTERS: Class A Bowling Green RHP Jeff Ames and OF Andrew Toles were named the Rays' top minor-league player and pitcher for April. Ames went 3-0 with a 1.45 ERA in five starts, with 22 strikeouts in 25 innings. Toles hit .368 with 21 RBIs.

MISCELLANY: Rays starters have worked at least five innings in all 34 games, the second longest streak to start a season. … Thursday was the fourth walkoff walk in Rays history, first in the majors since June. … Laura McKeeman, a former Sun Sports TV reporter, will be back at the Trop this weekend in her new gig on the Padres telecasts. … Winter Haven's Cuaney Bamberg was chosen as the Rays' honorary bat girl for Sunday's MLB-wide Mother's Day breast cancer awareness event.